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Crude oil remains above USD 71

08 February 2010 08:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Crude oil Monday stayed above $71 as bargain-hunters swooped in, but sentiment remained bearish due to pressure from a U.S. dollar rally and weak supply-demand fundamentals, Market Watch reported.

New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $71.38 a barrel at 0625 GMT, up 19 cents in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 34 cents to $69.93 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar has also weakened slightly and crude is trading close to its 200-day moving average, he said.

Last week, fears about European sovereign debt pressured the euro lower, causing the U.S. dollar to rally and oil investors to cut long positions, analysts said.

Crude may test the $70 mark as fundamentals remain bearish, he said.

U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose in the week ended Jan. 29, while product stocks fell as already-low refinery runs dropped further, pushing to a new historic low for this time of the year, according to data released last week by the U.S. Department of Energy.

At 0626 GMT, oil product futures were mixed.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--traded 4 points lower at 188.60 cents, while March heating oil was up 107 points to 188.55 cents a gallon.

ICE gasoil for February changed hands at $568.75 a metric ton, down $6.50 from Friday’s settlement