Petroleum Futures Rebound

Petroleum futures prices rebounded Thursday from the pounding they took the day before on data showing huge supplies of gasoline.

After seven consecutive sessions of declining prices, “I guess the market just got tired of being sold off,” said Peter Beutel, an analyst in New York with Rudolf Wolff Energy.

Gasoline and heating oil futures were particularly hard hit Wednesday, with some contracts down the 2 cent-a-gallon limit, responding to data from the American Petroleum Institute showing large stock buildups.

“The market over-reacted to the API numbers (Wednesday),” said Ed Dellamonte, an analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities. “When that happens, there’s going to be a correction.”

“But there’s still quite a bit of pressure on crude, particularly the nearby contracts,” he said, attributing this to several unsold cargoes of crude in the North Sea.

“Processors find that high gasoline-yielding crudes are cheaper to buy from North Africa than from the North Sea,” Dellamonte said.