Light, sweet crude for March delivery dipped to US$57.87 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midmorning in Singapore, as market participants took profits after crude gained more than $1 a barrel in the previous session. Prices spiked past US$58 on Wednesday on release of data reporting a drop in U.S. heating oil stockpiles and the Federal Reserve's suggestion economic growth is firmer than many anticipated. Colder-than-normal temperatures are expected through mid-February in the U.S. Northeast, which accounts for 80% of U.S. heating oil consumption.
The EIA said crude oil inventories rose last week by 2.7 million barrels to 324.9 million barrels; gasoline inventories rose by 3.8 million barrels to 224.6 million barrels; and distillate inventories -- which include heating oil and diesel fuel -- fell by 2.6 million barrels to 140 million barrels. A decrease in heating oil offset a small increase in diesel fuel. OPEC is set to begin its second round of production cuts, announced late last year, of 500,000 bpd of crude oil.
01-Feb-07 
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