Oil :: Price will increase in Weekend

Oil prices rebounded Thursday as traders feared being caught short ahead of a long holiday weekend amid tightening sanctions on Iran. The market fretted about Friday's keenly awaited official numbers on US jobs and unemployment for March, but took courage from an upbeat report Thursday on weekly initial unemployment claims, a sign of slowing layoffs. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for May, jumped $1.84 from Wednesday's closing level to finish at $103.31 a barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in May settled at $123.43 a barrel, adding $1.09. The New York oil market will be closed Good Friday, and its London counterpart will be closed on Friday and Monday due to a bank holiday. However, electronic trading will continue in New York.

 The market fell sharply on Wednesday after the US government reported a big jump in the nation's crude stockpiles, adding to concerns about growth in the world's biggest oil-consuming nation. The New York futures contract, which started the Thursday session slightly higher, leaped on news that US jobless claims fell to a four-year low last week. "The employment figures gave us a boost -- it shows that the job market is getting better," said Phil Flynn at PFG Best. VTB Capital commodities analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said the oil market would give its full verdict next week on the US jobs data. "Much will depend on how the market opens next week with a delayed reaction to the US March nonfarm payrolls report this coming Friday," Kryuchenkov said. Matt Smith at Summit Energy pointed to tensions over Iran keeping worries about tight supply on the boil. "News of Chinese insurers refusing to insure Iranian oil shipments has geopolitical tension coming back to the fore," Smith said. PFG Best's Flynn said the deepening sanctions on Iran by the United States and its allies is stirring worries that "very high quality crude is going to be in tighter supply."

Oil Price :: Increse

France is the latest nation to contemplate tapping its strategic petroleum reserves, thus raising the possibility that a joint release of oil with the United States and United Kingdom could curb rising oil prices. "It is the United States which has asked, and France has welcomed favorably this hypothesis," French Energy Minister Eric Besson said Wednesday. Such a move, if implemented, could happen in a “matter of weeks” French daily Le Monde reports. "The use of strategic reserves can be justified because it is related to geopolitical tension." The move had immediate political overtones, with a French presidential election a month away.


Although President Sarkozy has enjoyed a small bounce in the polls after recent home-grown terrorist attacks, he still trails his main rival, Francois Holland. In the face of meager economic growth, consumer discontent over rising gasoline prices is rising. Prices have hit record levels with motorists in Paris paying $5.54 a gallon, according to CNN. Earlier this month, President Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron discussed releasing oil from their strategic reserves to curb rising gasoline prices. Mr. Obama faces reelection later this year. Any action will come only after the conclusion of tripartite talks with the International Energy Agency (IEA), which coordinates releases of emergency oil reserves. “France is accompanying the US and UK in the IEA consultation, which could allow the release of strategic oil reserves in order to break the rising price spiral,” Bloomberg quoted French Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse as saying.

For its part, the IEA has indicated there is no need to release oil stocks. "There is no fear of disruption of supplies, and you know Saudi Arabia is going to bring more oil to the market," IEA Head Maria van der Hoeven said during a conference in New Delhi earlier this month, Reuters reports. Speculation about a release of oil stocks pushed crude prices down Wednesday. In New York, crude futures fell $1.98 to $105.35 per barrel. In London, Brent crude prices dropped $1.67 to $123.87, still up about 16 percent since the beginning of the year. But there's broad skepticism that a release of oil reserves will do much to dent oil prices in the long term. A recent Reuters study estimated that the world oil demand may be outstripping supply by more than a million barrels a day, caused primarily by the fall in oil sales from Iran, which is being pressured by the West to halt its nuclear program. All that a release of strategic reserves might accomplish, even a coordinated one by the US, UK, and France, would be a short-term dip in oil prices. "It's looking more and more like they are going to go ahead and do it," Carl Larry, of analysis from Oil Outlooks and Opinions, told NASDAQ magazine. Even if the US, UK, and France release their strategic reserves and prices fall toward $100 a barrel, Mr. Larry was skeptical that the release would have long-term effects.