Crude oil flat, demand weighs

11 March 2010

Written by Neil Brunskill

Crude oil prices were broadly stable on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) this morning (March 11th) after gains made yesterday amid varied demand signals.

An eagerly-awaited report from the US Energy Department yesterday showed that refinery utilisation decreased across the States last week as operators compensated for demand weakness seen in recent weeks.

Analysts expected these demand conditions to manifest themselves once more in the weekly inventories report from the Energy Information Administration, but data released by the organisation showed signs of a partial recovery.

While crude stocks continued to grow, the 1.4 million-barrel build was smaller than analysts had predicted in a Bloomberg poll.

"Demand in the US is still weak, there is no doubt about that. It looks to be in the slow recovery mode," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

At 11:27 GMT, the headline Nymex crude contract was changing hands for $82.10 a barrel, up one cent on yesterday's settle price, while heating oil prices were also steady around $2.10 a gallon.

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