The majors are looking to firm thirdquarter crude and gas prices to support profits amid weaker refining margins in the US and Europe and reduced upstream output. A year-on-year rise in US oil and gas prices offers the best prospect for supporting the majors’ upstream profits when they report their third-quarter results. US benchmark WTI crude averaged nearly $106/bl, compared with $92/bl in the third quarter of 2012. US Henry Hub gas prices averaged just under $3.60/mn Btu, up by nearly 30pc compared with a year earlier. Atlantic basin benchmark North Sea Dated averaged $110/bl, only slightly up from $109.50/bl a year earlier.
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