Oil gained 0.5 percent as fighting centered on Brega, a Mediterranean seaport, and Yemeni police clashed with anti- government protesters in the southwestern city of Taiz, Sadek al Shujaa, chief of a local clinic, said eyewitnesses to the Washington Post.
“The trend continues to be up, and the market continues to be led by all the events in the Middle East,” said Bentz, a broker with BNP in New York. “There are more worries about Middle East crude.” Crude for May delivery advanced 53 cents to $108.47 a barrel, the highest settlement level since Sept. 22, 2008. Prices are up 28 percent from a year ago.
The European benchmark traded at a premium of $12.59 a barrel to US futures. The difference between front-month contracts in London and New York surged to a record $19.54 on February 21 as unrest spread in the Middle East and North Africa and stockpiles climbed at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures. The spread averaged 76 cents last year.
The strife in Libya and Yemen is the latest in a wave of uprisings that has toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and spread to Algeria, Bahrain, Oman and Syria. Oil prices have climbed 18 percent since the ouster of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14.
“The fighting in Brega, the key Libyan oil port, between the rebels and the Qaddafi forces is encouraging further uncertainty in the market,” said a commodities analyst for Summit Energy Services. “The violence in Yemen is adding further support to crude.”
Hedge funds and other large speculators, increased and held their net-long positions, and increased the market speculation of oil by 1.8 percent to a figure of 292,066 in March 29. The belief that oil will continue to increase in the long-term has provided oil speculators all the proof they need to keep oil adjusted at an increasing rate.
(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com