THE price of crude oil was off from early morning lows yesterday, after China said it imported more crude oil in February.
Light Sweet crude oil futures for April 2010 were up $0.29 to $81.78 a barrel. Crude has been hovering above the $80-mark in the past five sessions.
"Global demand for crude oil will rise quicker than expected in 2010," monthly report from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said.
It added that world demand will go up by 880,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the earlier expectations of 810,000 bpd.
Moreover the United States (U.S.) Energy Information Administration raised its outlook for crude demand and expects consumption to grow to 1.5 million barrels a day, up from the earlier forecast of 1.2 million barrels.
Yesterday, China reported a narrower trade surplus of $7.6 billion in February and said the country imported 4.83 million barrels of crude oil a day, the second highest rate on record on a daily basis.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude inventories jumped 6.5 million barrels last week. Analysts were expecting a drop of 1.6 million barrels mainly due to a cold weather spell in most parts of the U.S.
Nonetheless, inventories of gasoline and distillates fell more than analysts expected, the institute's data revealed.
Meanwhile, the greenback was leveling off versus the euro, trimming its early morning gains, and continued to move higher versus the British pound.
Traders will look to U.S. crude oil inventories data from the Energy Information Administration scheduled for release later yesterday to get more evidence on the demand scenario.
Analysts expect crude oil inventories' build up by 2.1 million barrels and gasoline stocks to dip by 0.33 million barrels.
Source:© Copyright Guardian
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