Crude-oil futures bounced back in Asian trade Thursday as investors monitor the economic recovery in the U.S. and developments in Middle Eastern and North African oil producing countries.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $92.75 a barrel at 0710 GMT, up $0.42 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.44 to $107.59 a barrel.
Geopolitical events continue to influence Brent crude prices and have helped widen the Brent-WTI spread to around $14.90 a barrel.
In Libya, a rebel group is escalating a standoff with Tripoli by calling on tanker owners to lift oil at a port it has occupied and ignore a central government ban on such loading.
Iraq's Shiite-led army is holding back from an all-out offensive against Sunni militants holding the city of Fallujah as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seeks to avoid a broader sectarian conflict in an attempt to dislodge Al-Qaeda linked militants.
Later this week, the chief U.S. negotiator at the Iran nuclear talks will travel to Geneva to meet Iranian and European Union officials as Iran and six major powers seek to complete negotiations on implementing November's interim nuclear accord.
In Sudan however, talks between South Sudan's clashing factions faltered on Wednesday, after the government rejected calls to release political prisoners, raising concerns that further violence could endanger the country's oil production.
Financial markets also digested the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting in December with some analysts raising concerns that the pace of tapering may be accelerated as the economy recovers. Friday's labor market report will be in focus.
Goldman Sachs said the extreme cold wave in the U.S. will have a significant impact on fuel demand, boosting consumption levels, versus a relatively softer impact on crude oil production due to weather-related supply disruptions.
"The opening of the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline on January 22 and the recent discussion on the lifting of crude export bans in the U.S. had allowed us to see some upside bias in WTI crude," analyst Tan Chee Tat at Phillip Futures said.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for February--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 111 points to $2.6674 a gallon, while February heating oil traded at $2.9605, 111 points higher.
ICE gasoil for January changed hands at $913.50 a metric ton, up $1.25 from Wednesday's settlement.
