Oil prices continued to rally when trading resumed Jan 22 after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the US. The market was “emboldened by the promise of monetary stimulus in Japan and its possible attendant positive effect on other major oil consumers in the region,” said Marc Ground at Standard New York Securities Inc., the Standard Bank Group.

Oil markets were quiet Jan. 21 with the New York Mercantile Exchange and cash markets closed for the US holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Crude prices continued rising Jan. 18 for the third consecutive trading session largely because of increased political tension caused by a hostage takeover by Islamic militants at a gas processing plant in Algeria (OGJ Online, Jan. 16, 2013).

Crude prices climbed Jan. 17 for the second consecutive session as Islamic militants holding hostages at a remote BP PLC natural gas plant in Algeria raised the risk for supplies from Middle East and North Africa.

Authorizing US LNG exports would send positive signals not just to producers, but also to capital markets that would in turn finance new transportation systems, experts suggested at a conference on American energy exports.

The front-month crude contract closed up 1% Jan. 16 after rising more than $1/bbl in intraday trading in the New York market following a government report of an unexpected decline in commercial US crude inventories.

Oil prices declined Jan. 15 in their daily seesaw pattern with crude down 1% in the New York market, but the front-month natural gas futures contract continued to rally, gaining 2.4% because of colder weather.

Forecasts of colder weather in the US lifted both oil and natural gas prices Jan. 14 with crude overcoming initial weakness to continue its recent daily see-saw pattern in the New York market.

Front-month oil contracts were down across the board Jan. 11 while natural gas continued climbing, but both crude and gas posted net increases in the New York market over the whole business week.

The February crude contract posted an “underwhelming” gain Jan. 10 in the New York futures market against a background of encouraging economic indicators, analysts said. Natural gas climbed 2.6%, however, and corporate energy stocks improved with the SIG Oil Exploration & Production Index up 1.2% and the Oil Service Index gaining 1.3%.

Energy markets generally declined Jan. 9 with front-month crude down a marginal 0.1% following a bearish US inventory report. Natural gas continued its decline, falling 3.3% in the New York market.

Anticipated US natural gas exports are expected to provide economic benefits to gas importing countries but probably will not trigger a significant rise in US gas prices, said a report released by Deloitte’s Center for Energy Solutions.

Crude prices climbed in early trading Jan. 8 but closed with small losses in mixed markets.

In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, issued Jan. 8, the US Energy Information Administration forecasts a fairly loose oil market in the next 2 years, as higher global consumption will be more than offset by increasing global supply.