Crude-oil futures were trading slightly lower in Asia after posting handsome gains last week, as traders were cautious ahead of another meeting of euro-zone finance ministers later Monday and amid fading support from concerns over tension in the Middle East.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $88.05 a barrel at 0652 GMT, down $0.23 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.18 to $111.20 a barrel.
The finance ministers' meeting will discuss releasing the next installment of bailout money to Greece, an issue that has weighed on oil prices for months.
Tensions between Israel and Palestine pushed oil prices higher over the last two weeks, but with a negotiated ceasefire in place, macroeconomic concerns are back in play, especially over U.S. lawmakers' ability to avoid a so-called fiscal cliff.
Despite an upward push from the Israel-Palestine conflict, Brent crude prices have failed to break past the technical resistance around $112 a barrel. "The failure to move higher despite tailwind from stronger equities and a weaker dollar could indicate that the global supply situation continues to improve and therefore does not warrant higher prices at this stage," Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said in a note to clients.
Oil markets continue to face a supply overhang that could build further as some of the shut-in production comes back online while global demand continues to face growth risks.
"Despite the outages--affecting 708,000 barrels a day of scheduled loadings in December--affected West African streams have not rallied materially, likely reflecting soft crude demand with refinery margins under pressure around the world," analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a research note.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for December--the benchmark contract--fell 19 points to $2.7420 a gallon, while December heating oil traded at $3.0797, 26 points higher.
ICE gasoil for December changed hands at $954.75 a metric ton, up $3.00 from Friday's settlement.
Write to Gurdeep Singh at gurdeep.singh@dowjones.com
