Petroleum contracts register early gains of more than 2% Crude-oil futures rebounded Monday on the heels of last week's 4% pullback as global stocks moved higher and as concerns rose that militant unrest in Nigeria may disrupt supplies from Africa's biggest oil producer. U.S. stock futures indicated a higher opening on Wall Street, following gains in Asian and European stocks. See Indications. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, clashes between government forces and rebels reportedly continued Monday. Crude for June delivery gained $1.26, or 2.2%, to $57.60 a barrel in early North American electronic trading. It ended last week's trading down for the first week in four on worries that global energy demand will fall prey to further erosion. "The potential for disruption of Nigeria's oil production may be a supportive background feature for crude oil prices," said Brenda Sullivan, analyst at Sucden Financial Research. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main militant group, said on Monday it would put in place blockades on key waterways in the Niger Delta to try to prevent crude exports, Reuters reported. Despite Monday's gain, weak demand remains in the cards for crude. The International Energy Agency forecast in its monthly update last week that global oil demand will suffer the biggest drop this year since 1981. The IEA said it now expects demand to fall by fully 2.6 million barrels a day from 2008 levels. This would be 200,000 barrels more than the IEA had projected a month ago, according to the agency's monthly report. The IEA report confirmed that fundamentals in the oil market "have been weak and are getting weaker," said Hussein Allidina, analyst at Morgan Stanley, in a research note. "Equally apparent, however, is that the fundamentals have had very little impact on crude oil's recent price action." Also in energy trading to start the week, June-dated reformulated gasoline gained 4.6 cents, or 2.8%, to $1.727 a gallon, and June heating oil rose 4.16 cents, or 2.9%, to $1.4604 a gallon Natural gas for June delivery also rose, up 2.3 cents, or 0.6%, to $4.121 per million British thermal units.

Source