Energy Commodities: 08/01/2010

Unless stated otherwise, all prices are for the close of January 7

Brent crude oil futures: US$81.45/bbl, down 0.1 per cent, as of GMT 09:15, January 8
WTI crude oil futures: US$82.62, down 0.1 per cent, as of GMT 09:15, January 8
German power: €52.20/MWh, up 0.91 per cent
Coal: €104.85/t, up 0.62 per cent
Natural Gas: GB 36.50p/therm, down 2.14 per cent
EUAs for December 10 delivery: €12.73/t, up 2.58 per cent
CERs for December 10 delivery: €11.11/t, up 2.11 per cent

Latest Buzz
Oil futures have fallen back towards US$82/bbl on the back of a strengthening US dollar, while traders are waiting expectantly for US non-farm payrolls and unemployment data which will be released later on January 8. Economists surveyed by Marketwatch are expecting payrolls to climb by 10,000, which if correct, would mean the first increase in nearly two years.

The news that European gas oil inventories have risen has helped propel the ICE gas oil contango to around US$7/bbl, after it feel to just US$2/bbl earlier in the week. ARA gas oil stocks rose by 124,000t to 2.731Mt in the week ending January 7, as cold weather and the narrower contango, encouraged traders to unload their vessels.

The carbon markets witnessed an extremely bearish start to the day’s trading, with EUAs falling at one point to €12.15/t, before rising almost three per cent to close at €12.77/t on the back of an auction by the UK government of 4.9m EUAs which was almost five-times over subscribed. They fetched an average price of €12.15, thus netting the government €59.4m. CER prices rose to a lesser extent, as most of the positive news was EUA specific. Experts have predicted that EUA prices could fall further, as they are currently being supported by the cold weather, that has boosted natural gas demand. The low price of carbon has recently forced a number of carbon trading desks to diversify their operations (Reuters).