Oil
prices creep up
AFP
NEW
YORK
Petroleumworld.com
03 01 06
World oil prices inched higher on Tuesday on a technical rebound
in a market torn between healthy US crude stocks and international
political tensions, dealers said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April,
added 41 cents to close at 61.41 dollars a barrel.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery
increased 77 cents to end at 61.76 dollars a barrel.
Analysts attributed the rebound, after steep falls Monday, to
technical trading at the level of 60 dollars a barrel.
"Since the start of the year, crude prices have essentially
held to around 60 dollars, and will probably continue to hold
that level," Fimat analyst John Kilduff said.
Prices had been down for much of Tuesday's trading "after
terrorist concerns in Saudi Arabia eased and the market refocused
on plentiful supplies", Sucden analysts said.
New York prices had tumbled nearly two dollars on Monday following
news Friday that Saudi security forces had foiled an Al-Qaeda
attack on the vast Abqaiq refinery in the oil-rich Eastern Province.
US crude futures spiked by more than two dollars on Friday as
news of the attack compounded worries over global crude supplies.
But traders are now looking ahead to the prospect of plentiful
supplies in the United States, the world's biggest energy consuming
nation, when the Department of Energy releases weekly data on
crude inventories Wednesday.
US crude stocks are some 10 percent higher than at the same stage
last year, while gasoline reserves are at their highest level
for seven years.
Analysts expect Wednesday's DoE report to show that US crude stocks
jumped by 900,000 barrels in the week to February 24.
Gasoline reserves are seen falling by 200,000 barrels, and distillates
-- including heating fuel and diesel -- are forecast to have dropped
1.5 million barrels.
Despite the healthy US stocks outlook, international political
tensions continue to worry market participants.
In Nigeria, separatist guerrillas on Monday rejected government
claims that they would soon begin releasing nine foreign oil workers
held hostage in the Niger Delta for 11 days.
The ethnic Ijaw separatist group seized the nine oilmen on February
18 during a series of armed attacks on security forces and oil
facilities linked to the Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell's Forcados
export terminal.
The attacks forced Shell to suspend production across the western
Niger Delta, slashing output by 455,000 barrels per day and cutting
exports from Africa's largest oil producer by 20 percent.
There are also simmering tensions over the nuclear intentions
of Iran, the second-biggest oil exporter in the OPEC cartel behind
Saudi Arabia.
AFP
02 28 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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