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Oil prices rise, despite renewed equities downturn
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 03 14 07Oil prices advanced on Wednesday, as dealers set aside fresh turmoil on global equity markets and looked ahead to the weekly update on energy stockpiles in the United States.
Traders also kept an eye on Vienna, where ministers of the OPEC oil cartel are gathering this week for a meeting on output.
The price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery added 33 cents to 61.23 dollars per barrel in electronic trading.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, gained 34 cents to 58.27 dollars per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market.
The New York contract had shed almost one dollar on Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street that were sparked by news that the number of bad mortgage loans was rising in the United States, the world's largest economy.
On Wednesday, the equities downturn spilled over into Asia and Europe, where share prices were sharply lower across the major indices.
However, crude oil prices moved into positive territory as traders shrugged off the fresh stocks sell-off.
"The oil market is somewhat resilient to the turmoil in financial market," said Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore."What's important is that supply and demand fundamentals have tightened up."
The US Department of Energy publishes its weekly update on American energy inventories later Wednesday.
London analysts expect falls to stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel, and also gasoline (petrol) and crude oil.
Meanwhile, traders were anticipating no change to output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which opened informal talks in Vienna on Tuesday ahead of a full ministerial meeting on Thursday.
AFP 14 0852 GMT 03 07
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