Crude Oil Reaches Record $95.80 on Decline in U.S. Stockpiles [View All]

[Herman Munster]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYfCUpckq3LI&refer=worldwide

Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record $95.80 a barrel in New York after a U.S. inventories unexpectedly fell to a two-year low.

U.S. crude stockpiles dropped 3.89 million barrels to 312.7 million barrels last week, the lowest since October 2005, according to the Department of Energy. A 400,000-barrel gain was expected in a Bloomberg News survey. Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, resumed some oil exports and revealed that a storm caused more output to be halted than had been assumed.

``The shock of the data is understandable when you consider the news from Pemex that they shut in something like 1 million barrels a day, not 600,000,'' said Chris Mennis, owner of oil broker New Wave Energy LLC in Aptos, California. ``Most of that would have been going to the U.S.''

Crude oil for December delivery gained as much as $1.27, or 1.3 percent, to $95.80 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since trading began in 1983. It traded at $95.34 at 8:19 a.m. Singapore time.