Oil pared losses to trade above $81 a barrel in New York on optimism fuel demand will recover after imports into China, the world’s second-biggest energy user, rose more than estimated.
Oil pared losses after China’s overall imports rose 44.7 percent from a year earlier, topping an estimate of a 38 percent gain. Trade data also showed that the nation purchased 58 percent more crude last month, rising to 4.85 million barrels a day, and turn into a net fuel importer again after an economic recovery spurred demand.
“Growth of oil demand from developing countries should be the key to recovery of global oil demand this year because demand in the U.S. and Europe is still quite flat,” said Gideon Lo, an analyst at DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. “Oil is likely to find a good support level at $80.”
Crude oil for April delivery traded at $81.51 a barrel, up 3 cents, at 2:09 p.m. Singapore time. It earlier fell as much as 44 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $81.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, the contract fell 38 cents to settle at $81.49.
Oil dropped yesterday after the U.S. currency rose against the euro amid concern that the Greek financial crisis will trigger a default on debts by other European countries. The American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude inventories rose 6.5 million barrels last week.
Energy Department
U.S. gasoline demand showed signs of recovery as West Coast storms subsided and milder weather retuned to parts of the Gulf Coast. Motorists bought an average 9.62 million barrels of gasoline a day in the week ended March 5, bringing consumption to the highest level in eight months, MasterCard Inc. said in a report yesterday. Gasoline stocks fell 3.18 million barrels to 229.7 million barrels last week, the API said.
“The API data had a pretty big rise in stockpiles,” said Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “The recovery does look like it’s becoming entrenched but things are still quite slow.”
OPEC
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet March 17 in Vienna to review policies, group president Germanico Pinto said in a statement yesterday. The group last gathered Dec. 22 and left output quotas unchanged for a fourth consecutive meeting.
Pinto, who is also Ecuador’s minister of natural non- renewable resources, is seeking to reduce price speculation and volatility during his term as leader of the group.
“The fact that there’s volatility produces difficulties in the markets and in defining a long-term strategy for public investment in the oil industry,” he said.
Brent crude oil for April delivery was at $79.93 a barrel, up 2 cents at 2 p.m. in Singapore. It earlier fell as much as 27 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $79.64 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Yesterday it dropped 56 cents, or 0.7 percent, to settle at $79.91 a barrel.
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