World oil prices rose this evening after the US published mixed data concerning its stockpiles of crude. Traders were also digesting comments from President George W Bush that the US should cut oil imports from the Middle East by 75% by 2025 in a drive to wean the country off its 'addiction' to energy from unstable regions.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, gained 68 cents to $68.60 a barrel in pit trading. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery jumped 79 cents to $66.78 a barrel in electronic deals.
The US Department of Energy said stockpiles of crude oil and petrol increased over the past week, but distillate inventories declined. In a weekly inventories report, the DoE said crude stocks rose 1.9 million barrels in the week ended January 27 to total 321 million barrels, sharply outstripping US analysts' expectations. Oil traders had expected oil stocks to rise by only 383,000 barrels.
The latest figures show that US oil stocks are 11.4% above the level recorded a year ago.
Stocks of motor petrol were up 4.2 million barrels over the week at 219 million, the government department added. The rise in petrol stocks was also larger than expected.
Supplies of distillate products, used to make heating fuel and diesel, declined by 200,000 barrels to 136.3 million. Traders had expected distillate stocks to rise.
Prices had fallen slightly yesterday, when the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to maintain its crude production quota, opting against a cut amid high oil prices. OPEC decided at its Vienna meeting to keep pumping 28 million barrels of oil a day, while Iran insisted it would not halt oil exports amid the threat of a referral to the UN Security Council.
OPEC president Edmund Daukoru said today that the cartel hoped to increase its spare capacity by 0.5 million barrels a day by June.
