Oil Slips Below $ 60, As Cold Weather Disrupts Production

WTI crude oil is back to $59.55 after nearly touching $61 yesterday. Although, the refinery demand is skewing the picture. Some of the retracement is about the cold weather in the US. That led to a number of refinery shutdowns, which leaves fewer buyers for oil.

At the same time, some production is also being shut-in by the cold, so there’s some balance there, it’s just tough to find it. There’s also a skew in demand with extremely high heating demand, boosting distillates and natural gas but very low driving demand, sapping gasoline.

All in, that’s leaves for a but of uncertainty in the market and it looks like some of the momentum traders have bowed out. It also begs the question, if WTI only hit $ 60 when the US was on holiday, did it really hit $ 60 at all? But, the decline seems weak and buyers are coming back again, so the price will climb above $ 60 soon I assume.