النفط يرتفع مع نتائج المخزون الخام الاميركي

النفط يرتفع مع نتائج المخزون الخام الاميركي

ايلاف من بيروت: تابعت وكالة quot;The Associated Press quot; ارتفاع اسعار النفط بعد اعلان نتائج المخزون الاميركي:

Oil Prices Up on Drop in U.S. Crude Stocks

VIENNA: Oil prices rose Thursday, a day after Washington reported that U.S. stockpiles of crude and distillates fell in the last week. But increases were slight because of the lack of new market-moving developments in the volatile Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery gained 28 cents to $62.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. March Brent crude was up 28 cents to $61.34 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange.

Heating oil and gasoline were essentially flat at $1.6670 a gallon and $1.5465 a gallon.

Nymex natural gas rose marginally to $7.750 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday that crude inventories in the United States fell by 300,000 barrels to 320.7 million barrels in the week ending Feb. 3. Stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, slipped by 300,000 barrels to 136 million barrels, the agency said.

But gasoline inventories increased sharply, by 4.3 million barrels to 223.3 million barrels.

The stock draws were regarded as modest by traders as crude inventories remained about nearly 11 percent higher than a year ago and distillate stockpiles are 12 percent higher.

Analysts expected market sentiment to remain bearish on a lack of major new developments on the political front with Iran, the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, coupled with relatively mild winter weather in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer.

quot;Consumers have been given an economic boost with no astronomical heating bills to pay,quot; said Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading Corp. in a research note. quot;We know this fact has been the main reason energy prices have stayed somewhat grounded and have fallen short of bullish expectations.quot;

Last month was America's warmest January on record, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center on Tuesday.

The country's average temperature for the month was 39.5 degrees Fahrenheit, the center said. The old record for January warmth was 37.3 degrees in 1953.

The record high temperatures helped reduce residential energy needs for the nation as a whole, NCDC reported.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists estimated the nation's residential energy demand was 20 percent less than would have occurred under average climate conditions.

But listing Iran, post-election Palestinian tensions and low Iraqi crude production, Vienna's PVM Oil Associates warned that prices could soon move upward because of a quot;risk premium ... with the Middle East being one of the hot areas responsible.quot;