WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - Crude oil prices are higher Monday morning amid prospects of supply disruption from Libya where militants set fire to some oil tanks at the country's largest port Es Sider last week.
According to reports, fire has been extinguished at three of the tanks.
The Chinese central bank's decision to adjust rules for calculating bank deposits in order to increase liquidity is also contributing to oil's rise this morning.
Crude oil futures for February delivery are up USD0.78 or 1.37% at USD55.48 a barrel.
On Friday, crude oil futures ended down USD1.11 or almost 2.0% at USD54.73 a barrel.
Meanwhile, natural gas for February is up USD0.029 or 0.94% at USD3.062 per million btu.
At 10:30 am ET, the Dallas Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the results of its regional manufacturing survey for December.
Data on consumer confidence index for December from the Conference Board, the weekly jobless claims, the National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index for November and the results of the Institute for Supply Management's national and MNI Indicators' regional manufacturing surveys are due this week.
The S&P Case-Shiller house price index for October, Markit's final US manufacturing index for December and the Commerce Department's construction spending data for November will also be out during the course of the week.
