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Nymex entertains; Iraq, Nigeria, Kenya and Gaza disappoint
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
oil and energy trends
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1744-7992
pISSN - 0950-1045
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7992.2008.330206.x
Subject(s) - confusion , futures contract , session (web analytics) , west texas intermediate , newspaper , normality , economics , business , economy , financial economics , advertising , psychology , psychiatry , psychoanalysis
This section summarizes downstream developments of the previous month. Exploration & Production are covered in 'Upstream Review'. Oil markets started the year on a high note before descending into farce. In the first futures trading session of the new year, with all the screens showing WTI at $99.60/bbl, one Nymex trader ‐ doubtless with an eye on posterity ‐ paid $100 for a contract, thereby ensuring that oil grabbed the next day's newspaper headlines, though doubts were at first expressed over the validity of a trade that was so far off the market. In the ensuing confusion someone tried to replicate the trade, then the markets returned to some form of normality and began to fall steadily for much of the rest of the month until WTI slipped almost unnoticed below $90/bbl.