Wednesday, Mar 07, 2012


 
   By Eric Yep 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures rose in Asia, tracking a slightly firmer euro as oil supply concerns persisted, but contracts remain rangebound as economic growth concerns persist.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $105.14 a barrel at 0727 GMT, up $0.44 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.52 to $122.50 a barrel.

Nymex crude closed 1.9% lower Tuesday, at its lowest settlement since mid-February, tracking a broader selloff in equities.

The Schork Group said the bears may be justified given an inventory build of 4.583 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. in the past week, according to the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, which also said stocks at Cushing, Okla--a trading hub and the delivery point for Nymex crude--increased by 2.38 million barrels.

If the Nymex benchmark breaches support at $104.14 a barrel later today, it will lead to "corrective weakness" in the days ahead, but if the support level holds, it will create a path for another major rally, Schork said.

Energy consulting firm Ritterbusch and Associates said Tuesday's decline in crude benchmarks reinforces its longer-term view that another round of fresh highs will eventually be forthcoming.

The market will look to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, due at 1530 GMT for more cues. The EIA data will likely show a crude build of 1.1 million barrels for the week ended March 2 and a 0.1 percentage point decrease in refinery throughput, according to 13 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.

The EIA Tuesday trimmed its growth projections for 2012 and 2013, saying U.S. oil demand will slip to a 15-year low of 18.77 million barrels a day this year compared with last month's forecast of 0.2% growth.

It also said China's oil demand will grow 4.5% this year and 4.6% in 2013, down from its previous forecasts of 5.4% and 6.3%, respectively.

Greece's crucial debt swap on Thursday and U.S. non-farm payroll jobs figures due Friday are also in focus, as markets remain sensitive to any indications of weakening growth.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for April--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 230 points to $3.2529 a gallon, while April heating oil traded at $3.1949, 67 points higher.

ICE gasoil for March changed hands at $1005.75 a metric ton, down $0.25 from Tuesday's settlement.

-By Eric Yep, Dow Jones Newswires; +65 6415 4063; eric.yep@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 07, 2012 02:28 ET (07:28 GMT)