Crude-oil futures were marginally lower in Asian trade Friday as investors weighed mixed market cues and oil-demand projections by energy agencies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $100.15 a barrel at 0611 GMT, down $0.20 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.10 to $108.42 a barrel.
Paris-based energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, said in its monthly report that oil-demand growth in developed countries more than compensated for weaker-than-expected demand from emerging-market economies.
Global oil inventories were tight in the fourth quarter, with commercial oil stocks in developed countries plummeting by a whopping 135 million barrels, the steepest quarterly decline since 1999. As a result, stocks hit their lowest since 2008 by end-December.
"While there are good reasons to expect the market to rebalance in the next few months, a glut is looking increasingly elusive," IEA said.
The market missed an opportunity to break to the upside after the IEA report although some other aspects of the report were less bullish, Tim Evans, energy markets strategist at Citi Futures, said in a note.
Mr. Evans said there's seasonal weakness in first-half global oil demand that may limit the potential for price gains in the near term.
The Nymex WTI market was also caught between mixed fundamentals, Mr. Evans said. Oil inventories at the Cushing, Okla. delivery hub will potentially trend lower by 10 to 15 million barrels in the weeks ahead, while refinery maintenance will cap crude consumption, he said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to reel from the impact of a massive winter storm that has caused numerous power outages, traffic accidents and flight cancellations. The cold weather was expected to support energy prices, especially heating oil and gas.
Supply disruptions in Libya underpinned Brent crude, after the El Sahara pipeline connecting southern Libyan oil fields to the port of Zawiya was shut down by protesters.
"The impact on throughput is unclear at this stage; the El Sahara oil field has a typical output of 340,000 barrels a day," ANZ said.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 91 points to $2.7681 a gallon, while March heating oil traded at $3.0371, 64 points higher.
ICE gasoil for March changed hands at $920.75 a metric ton, up $2.25 from Thursday's settlement.
