As of 11:55 a.m. EST, crude-oil futures traded for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $53.70 a barrel, down 2.1%, or $1.14, after trading as low as $53.60 during the session.
"U.S. crude stocks have recently been on the rise and providing even more crude oil [via OPEC] won't necessarily solve the U.S. gasoline refinery conundrum," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an energy analyst at Fimat. "In fact, late last week it was reported that OPEC's eastbound export flow reached a year-high, which has to add to the current negative outlook the market has adopted."
The situation lets OPEC argue that it has done its part to calm prices, he said. "This time the sellers may be too numerous to overcome," Mr. Fitzpatrick said. "While the $40 mark is hardly in danger, $50 may be temporarily in jeopardy this week."
Kevin Kerr, president of Kerr Trading International, said growing strength in the dollar is also exerting pressure on crude prices. "Traders are likely to take crude back down to the $50 level this week," he said. "It's simple, really. Supply numbers for crude oil are simply very strong, and the market has little basis for staying above $50 for a sustained period of time. However, we see a real stopping point at around $48."
Energy traders kept an eye out for an update from petroleum firm BP Co. on the status of its 1,200-acre Texas City, Texas, refinery, scene of a deadly March 23 explosion that killed 15 workers and damaged the facility, the third-largest U.S. refinery with about 450,000 barrels of capacity. Refinery employees were scheduled to be back on the job Monday and resume turnaround work. Since the explosion, refining operations have continued at the plant, which also was the scene of an accident last year that killed two workers.
Meanwhile, the average national retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded stands at $2.133, up from $2.125 over the weekend, according to the latest AAA daily fuel gauge report. Gasoline prices are up about 20% from a year ago. On Nymex, April gasoline fell 2.3%, or 3.72 cents, to $1.562 a gallon. April heating oil shed 1.5%, or 2.34 cents, to $1.525 a gallon. April natural gas fell 10.7 cents to $6.955 per million British thermal units.