WSJ:OIL FUTURES: Crude Rises; Effect Of EU Ban On Iran Oil Short-Lived
By Mari Iwata
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures edged higher in Asian trading Tuesday, tracking gains in some regional shares in thin volumes due to Lunar New Year holidays in the region.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $99.82 a barrel at 0747 GMT, up $0.24 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.09 to $110.67 a barrel.
The European Union's decision Monday to ban Iranian crude imports for new contracts, allowing existing contracts to be fulfilled up to July 1, pushed prices higher overnight, but the impact appears to be short-lived.
The ban had mostly been factored into oil prices, and the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln's uneventful passage through the Strait of Hormuz demonstrated that there is little real risk of a disruption of the global oil supply, said Atsushi Taira, a trader at Yutaka Shoji, a Tokyo-based brokerage.
Saber-rattling benefits Iran by boosting the oil price and therefore delivering bigger revenues from oil sales, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at PFG Best.
Some analysts said crude-oil traders are shifting their attention from tension over Iran's suspected nuclear arm development to macroeconomic cues, looking, for example, to comments due Wednesday following the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting for indications on how FOMC members see Europe's debt problems impacting the U.S. economy.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for February--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 15 points to $2.7794 a gallon, while February heating oil traded at $3.0208, 110 points higher.
ICE gasoil for February changed hands at $941.00 a metric ton, up $4.00 from Monday's settlement.
-By Mari Iwata, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2798; mari.iwata@dowjones.com
