Up and Coming: Supply talk eases oil price surge

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Supply talk eases oil price surge

Oil prices have retreated from Thursday's multi-year highs amid optimism producers could offset a drop in supply caused by unrest in Libya.

Brent crude was trading at $112.65 a barrel, after almost breaking through the $120 mark i the previous session.

US light crude was at $97.49 a barrel having surged past $100.

Reports suggest Saudi Arabia has increased its oil production by almost 10% to offest production shortages resulting from the unrest.

Global stock markets gained ground after the threat of rocketing oil prices receded.

Leading European markets Paris and Frankfurt were up about 0.5% in early trading - though London's FTSE 100 index was suspended due to a technical fault.

Earlier, Singapore's STI stock index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng saw increases of more than 1% while markets in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan also gained.

Analysts said that the mood had been helped by comments from Saudi Arabia and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Saudi Arabia has said that it would step in to fill any shortfall in supply should it be needed now, or should the Libyan situation deteriorate.

Reuters news agency quoted an oil industry source saying that Saudi had increased production by 700,000 barrels a day to more than 9 million a day in total.

At the same time, the IEA said that Libyan production had been less affected than many observers had first forecast.

Analysts said that the markets want to see crude supplies becoming available as and when they are needed.

The worry is that if oil prices climb too high, then they will slow global economic growth, and hurt consumers and company profits.

Trying to predict the oil price when it is being driven by geopolitical events, rather than the fundamentals of supply and demand, is particularly difficult, analysts say.

"The fear factor in the market remains high, as the extent of contagion remains unknown," said Barclays Capital.

"The price correction, should the situation in the Middle East ease somewhat or in the event of Opec production increases, is likely to be quite sharp."

However, others argued that the drop in the price of oil seen on Thursday afternoon would be short lived.

"I think oil prices are going to trade higher, even with Saudi assurances," said Tom Kaan at Louis Capital Markets in Hong Kong.

"I think Opec wants to see higher oil prices."

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.