Crude Prices Rise on Bargain Hunting

[chlamor]

Crude prices rise on bargain-hunting

2/18/2005, 5:54 a.m. ET
By GEORGE JAHN
The Associated Press
 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Crude futures rebounded in thin trading Friday on the back of bargain-hunting by traders following a drop in prices the day before.
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Still, analysts said that after the volatility of the past few days, sparked by tensions over Iran and a relatively bullish OPEC report, markets would likely settle into a narrow range in the coming days.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for March delivery rose 28 cents to $47.82 a barrel by late morning in Europe, rolling back part of Thursday's 79 cent decline. Heating oil prices were up slightly at $1.3180 a gallon.
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Oil prices have been rising on most days over the past week on worries that OPEC — which controls 40 percent of world oil exports — might cut production at its March 16 meeting in Isfahan, Iran.

OPEC acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab Eldin has said the group may cut up to 1 million barrels a day. But Nigeria and fellow OPEC member Algeria have suggested no major reductions are needed.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, oil demand in the United States averaged nearly 21.1 million barrels per day over the last month, 3 percent above last year's level. Crude stocks were at 296.4 million barrels per day for the week ending Feb. 11, up 22.6 million barrels per day from a year ago.
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