By Eric Yep
Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trade Monday as the excessive
drop in oil prices in recent weeks sparked some buying interest and
short-covering among investors before the end of the year, traders
said.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures
for delivery in February traded at $58.09 a barrel at 0352 GMT, up
$0.96 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on
London's ICE Futures exchange rose $1.16 to $62.54 a barrel.
The price of Nymex crude fell 2.23% last week for the fourth
consecutive week. During those four weeks Nymex lost 26.13%--the
largest percentage decline for that time period since the week
ended Dec. 26, 2008. Brent crude fell 1.24% last week and has also
dropped for the last four consecutive weeks, losing 23.62% of its
value.
On Sunday, Gulf oil officials defended the decision of the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last month to
keep its production ceiling intact, blaming non-OPEC producers for
the current oil market glut.
Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, blamed a lack of
coordination among non-OPEC producers, along with speculators and
misleading information, for the price slump. He was speaking at an
energy conference in Abu Dhabi.
Oil prices have nosedived since OPEC decided on Nov. 27 to keep
its production ceiling unchanged.
KBC Energy Economics said it expected absolute energy prices to
remain lower through the end of 2015.
Meanwhile, money managers continued to extend their net-long
positions, betting that prices will rise. Money managers raised
bullish bets on oil with a net-long position of 217,723 contracts
through Dec. 16, up 13.8% from the week earlier, CFTC data
showed.
Citi Futures said the strongest bullish argument for crude oil
at the moment is that it looks cheap after a protracted price
drop.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January--the
benchmark gasoline contract--rose 306 points to $1.5901 a gallon,
while January diesel traded at $1.9868, 246 points higher.
ICE gasoil for January changed hands at $562.00 a metric ton, up
$13.25 from Friday's settlement.
--Summer Said and Sarah Kent contributed to this article.
Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com