Commodity Blog

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading near the highest level for this year, and Brent crude reached the highest since December. There were several reasons for the rally, including the discussions between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers about output freeze. The drop of US oil rig count to the lowest level since December 2009 also contributed to the rise of prices. There are still skeptics who talk about glut on the market, but for now prices are hovering near multi-month highs. Futures for delivery of WTI crude oil in April climbed 4.62% to $37.58 per barrel as of 17:45 GMT on NYMEX today. May contract for Brent grade of oil advanced as much as 4.83% to trade at $40.59 per barrel on ICE.

Naturals gas was not left behind as it joined the rally. Fundamentally, there are not many reasons for the commodity to rally as forecasters promise a warm start of spring, limiting demand for heating fuel. Yet it did not prevent futures from rising as April natural gas added 4.02% to its value, trading at $1.73 per million British thermal units on NYMEX as of now.

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