SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose in Asian trade Thursday as rising US energy demand helped underpin markets on the last day of 2009, analysts said.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for February delivery, was up 29 cents to 79.57 dollars a barrel in the afternoon.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February gained 57 cents to 78.60 dollars.
A second consecutive week of falling energy inventories in the US boosted prices, analysts said.
Declining stockpiles indicate strengthening demand in the United States, the world's biggest economy and the largest consumer of energy.
"We've certainly seen the cold weather impact the weekly inventory data... That's certainly been good for the oil market," said Mark Pervan, senior commodities analyst with ANZ bank in Melbourne.
Data released by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on Wednesday showed crude inventories dropping by 1.5 million barrels in the week ending December 25, in line with analysts' predictions.
Distillates -- which include heating fuel and diesel -- tumbled 2.0 million barrels due to increased demand resulting from cold winter weather gripping much of the United States.
0 comments:
Post a Comment