International futures markets posted gains Thursday as traders� speculation shifted from whether the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will reduce production to how big a cut the cartel will make.
Chakib Khelil, Algeria�s energy minister and OPEC�s new conference president, said Thursday that current crude supplies exceed demand by 1.4 million b/d. He said OPEC members could cut production by as much as 1.5 million b/d before March in an attempt to stabilize prices around $25/bbl.
Benchmark US light, sweet crude for February delivery added 14� to $28.14/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, while the March contract was up 27� to $27.54/bbl.
The February contract for home heating oil rose 0.14� to 86.12�/gal, while unleaded gasoline for the same month increased 0.86� to 81.86�/gal.
The February natural gas contract surged 77.7� to $8.96/Mcf on the NYMEX.
Contradictory reports of US inventories of oil and petroleum products by the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday and by the Department of Energy early Thursday neutralized each other as market factors, analysts said. It marked a rare occasion when one report was bullish and the other bearish, they said.
In London, the February contact for North Sea Brent crude finished at $25.35/bbl, up 32� for the day after trading as low as $24.77/bbl in early profit-taking Thursday. Analysts now are predicting those prices may firm a little more before stabilizing, in anticipation of an OPEC production cut. However, the February natural gas contract lost 4� to the equivalent of $3.85/Mcf on the IPE.
The average price for OPEC�s basket of seven crudes climbed 64� to $23.25/bbl Thursday.
