Commodity Daily News

The Storm Alert Has Drawn Attention World-Wide

The price for Crude Oil continues to remain stable and is traded at $116.44/barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after rising 1% since last Friday. Despite the fact that in the Gulf of Mexico Oil companies are preparing to shut down the production as the Tropical storm Gustav continues to make its way toward the region, the market has taken it rather calmly.

According to the National Hurricane Center the storm reached Category 3, after dropping down from Category 4 and its landfall is expected in the next 24 hours. The damages expected are rather minor since the storm will probably not reach its highest level. So far only few oil companies in the Gulf have cancelled their production, evacuating their workers and closing their refineries.

The expectation is that the Oil prices won't rise dramatically in the next 48 hours, if the storm won't take an unexpected course. Moreover, the International Energy Agency's announcement earlier that they will be willing to release reserves if necessary, also contributed to the stability on the Oil prices.