Oil hovers below $91 as US crude supplies jump
Oil prices hovered below $91 a barrel Wednesday as markets kept an eye on developments in Egypt and a report showed U.S. gasoline and crude supplies rose more than expected last week, suggesting the recovery in demand remains uneven.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery was down 19 cents at $90.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.42 to settle at $90.77 a barrel on Tuesday.
In London, Brent crude was unchanged at $101.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. It rose as high as $102.04 earlier in the session.
The large difference between the Nymex and Brent contracts ``is attributable mainly to declining European inventory levels ... as well as reports of sporadic field outages and trader accumulation of some North Sea cargoes that took place in late January,'' said Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at MF Global in New York.
The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that gasoline inventories rose 3.9 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast an increase of 2.0 million barrels. Inventories of crude rose 3.8 barrels and distillates fell 1.1 million barrels, the API said.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data _ the market bechmark _ later Wednesday.
Oil has come off two-year highs above $92 earlier this week as investor fears eased that chaos in Egypt could disrupt the two million barrels of crude per day that pass through the Suez Canal and an adjacent pipeline.
There's ``mounting evidence that crude supplies through either the Suez Canal or SUMED pipeline are unlikely to be disrupted as a result of continued Eg! yptian s treet uprisings,'' Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.
The influence of the situation in Egypt, however, was expected to continue supporting prices.
``The problem is not ... Egypt as an oil producer, it's Egypt as a stabilizer of this region, or as a destabilizer of this region,'' Jean-Louis Schilansky, head of the French Oil Industry Union told AP Television News. ``It's the fear of what can happen by contagion in other countries of this region that provokes this tension.''
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil was down 0.14 cent at $2.7556 a gallon and gasoline fell 0.88 cent to $2.5106 a gallon. Natural gas futures for March delivery were up 1.8 cents at $4.365 per 1,000 cubic feet.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery was down 19 cents at $90.58 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.42 to settle at $90.77 a barrel on Tuesday.
In London, Brent crude was unchanged at $101.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. It rose as high as $102.04 earlier in the session.
The large difference between the Nymex and Brent contracts ``is attributable mainly to declining European inventory levels ... as well as reports of sporadic field outages and trader accumulation of some North Sea cargoes that took place in late January,'' said Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at MF Global in New York.
The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that gasoline inventories rose 3.9 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast an increase of 2.0 million barrels. Inventories of crude rose 3.8 barrels and distillates fell 1.1 million barrels, the API said.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data _ the market bechmark _ later Wednesday.
Oil has come off two-year highs above $92 earlier this week as investor fears eased that chaos in Egypt could disrupt the two million barrels of crude per day that pass through the Suez Canal and an adjacent pipeline.
There's ``mounting evidence that crude supplies through either the Suez Canal or SUMED pipeline are unlikely to be disrupted as a result of continued Eg! yptian s treet uprisings,'' Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.
The influence of the situation in Egypt, however, was expected to continue supporting prices.
``The problem is not ... Egypt as an oil producer, it's Egypt as a stabilizer of this region, or as a destabilizer of this region,'' Jean-Louis Schilansky, head of the French Oil Industry Union told AP Television News. ``It's the fear of what can happen by contagion in other countries of this region that provokes this tension.''
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil was down 0.14 cent at $2.7556 a gallon and gasoline fell 0.88 cent to $2.5106 a gallon. Natural gas futures for March delivery were up 1.8 cents at $4.365 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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