UBS Investment Research raised its price forecast for West Texas crude and Brent “a lot.” UBS now expects West Texas crude to average $115 a barrel this year, $120 in 2009 and $116 in 2010 — increases of 32 percent, 54 percent and 53 percent above its previous outlook.
UBS sees Brent crude at $113.50 a [...]

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 85 billion cubic feet to more than 1.61 trillion cubic feet for the week ending May 16.
The inventory level was slightly below the five-year average of nearly 1.62 trillion [...]

World Gold Council (WGC), the organisation formed and funded by the world’s leading gold producers, has today announced that it has partnered with a leading Russian jewellery manufacturer, Choron, to bring the Gold Expressions jewellery collection to Russia for the very first time. Choron will present Gold Expressions at the New Russian Style Fair 2008 [...]

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Metals & Mining in Belgium” to their offering.
Our Metals & Mining in Belgium industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the metals & mining industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key [...]

Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon.
Wednesday’s rally was fed in part by a report from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration, which said crude inventories fell last week, when analysts expected [...]

Ukraine is canceling a contract with a U.S. oil company planning to explore for oil and gas on the Black Sea underwater shelf.
The government says the production-sharing agreement that was signed in 2006 with the subsidiary of Texas-based Vanco Energy Co. is “plundering Ukraine’s mineral reserves.”
Last month, Ukraine revoked Vanco’s license, and Prime Minister Yulia [...]

Brazil’s Petrobras plans to hire 40 deep and ultradeepwater rigs by 2017. That’s good news for drilling and oilfield services companies, although it’s not entirely clear what Brazil’s state-run oil company has in mind.
“We’re investigating the (1) expected mix of existing, already under construction, and yet-to-be-ordered rigs; (2) expected mix of drillships and semis; (3) [...]

Top executives of the five largest oil companies tried to shift the country’s anger over high petroleum prices to a debate over supplies in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives there’s “a disconnect” between normal supply and demand and the skyrocketing price of oil — surpassing $130 a barrel even [...]

Lehman Brothers analyst Paul Cheng said the EIA report was bullish for petroleum interests, but he has some concerns. Refinery runs, he said are rising as demand for gasoline and distillates weakens. Combined with new ethanol plant startups in the next few months, Cheng thinks gasoline margins may have peaked and will decline again soon.
Soleil-Back [...]

Crude-oil inventories fell unexpectedly last week after four straight weeks of gains.
For the week ended May 16, crude-oil inventories dropped by 5.4 million barrels to 320.4 million barrels, which is 6.5 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its weekly report.
Analysts expected a gain of 900,000 barrels, according to [...]