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Oil prices rise

18 February 2011 07:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-ECONOMICS. Crude oil futures prices rose Thursday, with market players snatching up near-term supplies as a coming contract expiration and market holiday combined with simmering tensions in the Middle East, the global oil patch, Wall Street Journal reported.
Light, sweet crude oil futures for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 1.6%, or $1.37 a barrel, to settle at a one-week high of $86.36 a barrel. The contract expires on Tuesday after the Presidents Day holiday shuts the exchange on Monday. Traders said market interest and trading volume has shifted to the April contract, which settled $1 higher, at $88.84 a barrel. The March contract traded at a discount of nearly $4 a barrel to April on Monday, but that narrowed to near $2.50 a barrel on Thursday..
Business was largely focused on the realignment in the Nymex crude market, as prices of April delivery ICE Brent crude, which is the European benchmark, weakened and Nymex heating oil and gasoline contracts declined. The Brent crude settlement wasn’t yet available, but the contract was about $1 a barrel lower in late trading. Brent’s premium to the U.S. benchmark contract hit a record of $18.79 a barrel, as the domestic price is pressured by near-record high storage levels at Cushing, Okla., the contract’s delivery point, which isn’t accessible to most U.S. refineries.