FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Oil is nearing the $82.00 zone after further increasing 0.04% in the last 2 hours of trading. The crude price is up by 0.50% (44 cents) now to quote $81.95 although earlier on the boards traded as high as $82.08 a barrel before retreating. The oil price intra-day high gets very close to tap last Friday high of $82.12, which has been the strongest intra-day level since mid-January. Last week oil prices ended 2% higher after legging more than $3 a barrel. Oil value was well supported by three key factors last week to consolidate the gains, first being the encouraging US non-farm payrolls, secondly the CAD strength largely correlated to the crude and thirdly the fact oil managed to close above $80 level, which can be seen as a dominative bullish control. Meanwhile, Gas is trading down 1.31% at 4.533, thus extending previous losses from last week.

Source