Crude Oil Caps Biggest Monthly Gain Since August

[Purveyor]

By Moming Zhou and Mark Shenk - Jul 31, 2013

West Texas Intermediate crude climbed, capping the biggest monthly gain since August, as inventories at a major hub dropped to a 15-month low and the U.S. economy grew more than projected in the second quarter.

Prices advanced 1.9 percent after the government said supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures, slid 4.3 percent last week. They were at a record in January. Gross domestic product rose at a 1.7 percent annualized rate in a Commerce Department report. Futures extended gains in the last half hour of regular trading as the Federal Reserve said it would maintain monthly bond purchases.

“If we continue to see Cushing supplies drop, it could signify the end of the bottleneck there,” said Julius Walker, global energy markets strategist at UBS Securities LLC in New York. “It could signal that Cushing is being structurally drained, which would be supportive of WTI, although I don’t think we’re there yet.”

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/crude-heads-for-best-month-since-august-on-u-s-gdp.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Supplies dropping? Hmmm.

I'm thinking exports, not demand.

Either way they will use this as an excuse to raise the price again. It's necessary to keep the fracking business viable.