Oil prices steady after week of tumult

March 27, 2011 | 07:58

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Oil prices stabilized on Friday at the end of a week dominated by concerns over unrest in Libya and the Middle East.

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New York's main contract, light sweet crude for May, ended the day down 20 cents to $105.40.

London's Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May was down 13 cents to $115.59 a barrel.

"The risk premium from the... Libya fallout and jitters over Yemen is already priced in," said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov, explaining why prices were holding around current levels after recent gains.

Oil-rich Libya was producing 1.69 million barrels a day before the unrest but this has been virtually halted since.

"The main focus (for traders) remains on the ongoing political unrest in Libya, Yemen and Syria," said Myrto Sokou, an analyst at Sucden brokers.

"It was certainly a very volatile and unpredictable week with fairly nervous trading conditions across the commodities and equity markets."

The price of New York's main contract rose 2.5 per cent since Monday, while London's rose just over one per cent.

On Friday, traders also digested revised US growth data, which showed the economy grew faster than previously thought.

Official data showed the economy grew 3.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, up from the previous estimate of 2.8 per cent.

Ahead of the data, the US government announced on Wednesday that US gasoline (petrol) stockpiles dived by 5.3 million barrels last week.

The market is closely following the level of gasoline reserves ahead of the summer driving season in the United States starting in May, when many Americans hit the roads on holiday, pushing up fuel demand.

AFP

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