| Crude Oil – US crude oil futures ended at their highest level in nearly eight weeks on Friday, rallying with Wall Street, as government data showed that US employers cut a smaller number of jobs than expected in February, bolstering economic recovery hopes. Crude gained sharply along with a wide array of commodities as investors bet on higher raw materials demand and firm interest rates should the economy recover. US crude oil stockpiles rose more than forecast last week as imports continued to gain while distillate fuel inventories fell on higher demand, US Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday. Gasoline stocks increased in line with forecasts. Commercial crude oil stockpiles in the United States rose 4.1 million barrels to 341.6 million barrels in the week ended February 26, EIA reported. Analysts polled earlier in the week had projected crude oil inventories would show a build of 1.4 million barrels. Crude stocks were up for a fifth consecutive week as imports of crude again gained ground, showing an increase of 152,000 barrels per day last week, according to the report. Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, dropped 900,000 barrels to 151.8 million barrels, falling for a fifth week in a row and matching analysts' forecasts. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets to consider oil output policy on March 17 in Vienna, Austria. The 12-member group, which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, looks set to keep its production target unchanged, as it has done for more than a year, with oil prices in its comfort zone of $70-80 per barrel and demand expected to revive. In December 2008, with prices and fuel use falling because of the recession, OPEC announced a record production cut of 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd), equivalent to around 5 percent of world demand at the time, to 24.84 million bpd for all members excluding Iraq. OPEC, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the world's biggest consumer, the United States, are all agreed demand should rise in 2010 as the global economy inches into recovery, although their views on total needs differ. |