Crude-oil futures are mixed in Asian trade Monday, with Brent crude supported by reports indicating Libyan oil exports may not materialize this week, while U.S. oil markets await the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting later this week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $96.39 a barrel at 0550 GMT, down $0.21 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.40 to $109.23 a barrel.
Last week, Libyan government officials said an agreement had been reached with tribal leaders to resume oil exports from the country's ports in the east, weighing on oil prices.
However, one of the militia leaders responsible for shutting several ports since July said Sunday that his group wouldn't reopen them because his demands for greater regional autonomy hadn't been met, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"Supply-side issues are likely to keep a floor under prices and temporarily allow OPEC not to have to face a difficult decision on how to allocate a possible cut," Barclays said in its weekly energy outlook, referring to oil supply disruptions in Libya and Iran.
While Western sanctions against Iran have cut off more than 1 million barrels a day of crude from global markets, recent strikes and political unrest have reduced Libyan oil output to 200,000-300,000 barrels a day from 1.35 million barrels a day in the first half of the year, analysts said.
Gains in oil prices Monday were capped by preliminary Chinese factory data that showed slower growth in manufacturing activity in the world's second-largest economy. The preliminary HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers index for China eased to 50.5 in December compared with a final reading of 50.8 in November.
Manufacturing data from the Eurozone and Germany and U.S. industrial production data are due later Monday. For the rest of the week, markets will focus on the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's meeting for any decision on early tapering of asset purchases.
"We think that the decision will be a very close call. On balance, we think that the Fed will decide not to reduce the pace of its asset purchases [in December]," ABN Amro said in a note.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 64 points to $2.6357 a gallon, while January heating oil traded at $2.9848, 91 points higher.
ICE gasoil for January changed hands at $923.00 a metric ton, up $5.25 from Friday's settlement.
