By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Jan. 16 -- In New York Tuesday, energy futures prices stabilized in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The February contract for light, sweet crude, the US benchmark, edged up 1¢ to close at $18.90/bbl, while the March contract stood at $19.44/bbl, up 3¢. In after-hours electronic access trading, the February contract was fetching $18.43/bbl, reflecting mostly bearish stocks data from the American Petroleum Institute's weekly survey, released after closing Tuesday.
API estimated that crude stocks increased 4.1 million bbl last week, while gasoline inventories expanded by 4.2 million bbl. Distillate stocks, including home heating oil, fell 875,000 bbl.
On the NYMEX, refined petroleum products closed higher with February home heating oil rising by 0.41¢ to finish at 52.07¢/gal, while unleaded gasoline for the same month put on 0.15¢ to rest at 55.20¢/gal.
NYMEX natural gas for February delivery was $2.29/Mcf, up 4.1¢ over Monday's close.
Meanwhile, in London Tuesday, North Sea Brent crude oil futures ended the day slightly lower on the International Petroleum Exchange, and still firmly below $20/bbl, on anticipation of a bearish US oil stocks' report, which proved correct.
Brokers said Monday's fall by over $1/bbl was possibly overdone, but a further decline was still likely as a result of the latest API data.
They noted that it was still too early in the month for reasonably accurate estimates of output from both the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC countries.
However, the market was waiting for the figures as eagerly as stocks' data to gauge how far into oversupply the balance was tipping, they added.
On Tuesday, IPE February Brent futures settled at $19.70/bbl, down by 8¢ from the previous close. The day's high was $20.10 and the low $19.67. Also on the IPE, February natural gas fell 10¢ to close at the equivalent of $3.61/Mcf.
OPEC's basket of seven crudes stood at $17.97/bbl Tuesday, unchanged from the previous day.
