By Surabhi Sahu Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trade Thursday as investors shrugged off news about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death to focus on a bearish U.S. crude stockpiles report and production increase at the Buzzard oil field. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $90.30 a barrel at 0616 GMT, down $0.13 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.29 to $110.77 a barrel. The Federal Energy Information Administration Wednesday said crude-oil stocks climbed 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 1, compared with 500,000 barrels projected by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll. Such stockpiles are preventing the Nymex price from rising, whereas an expected production increase at Buzzard is having a similar affect on Brent, a Tokyo-based trader said. Limiting declines are U.S. economic data, showing private businesses employed more people in February than economists had forecast, and factory orders declined less than forecast, the trader said. Market participants will next look to non-farm payrolls data Friday for trading cues, the trader said. More price consolidation is likely around $90 for Nymex and $110 for Brent over next few days, said Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch & Associates in a note Wednesday. "Overall, we still see a weak pricing environment once this week's jobs numbers clear, the euro potentially sees some fresh multi-week lows and increasingly bearish crude balances weigh further on WTI [Nymex] pricing. Despite recent reductions, we envision more long liquidation out of the WTI space with values ultimately declining to the $85 mark by month's end." The death of Mr. Chavez is unlikely to have a significant impact in the short run, analysts concurred. Venezuelan oil and gas is of less global importance than it once was, especially given the boom in North American supply, Tom Pugh, a commodities economist at Capital Economics, said in a note Wednesday. Any shortfall due to temporary disruption could be offset by spare capacity in Saudi Arabia and, in a worst-case scenario, the U.S. could draw on ample strategic reserves, Mr. Pugh said. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for April--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 124 points to $3.1123 a gallon, whereas April heating oil traded at $2.9609, 147 points lower. ICE gasoil for March changed hands at $926.00 a metric ton, down $1.00 from Wednesday's settlement. Write to Surabhi Sahu at surabhi.sahu@dowjones.com

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