BLBG: Crude Oil Trades Near a One-Week High as China Increases Diesel Imports
Oil traded near the highest in more than a week as traders bet China’s rising imports of diesel will spur refinery demand for crude.
China, the world’s largest energy user, is increasing diesel purchases and production to ease a domestic shortage. PetroChina Co., the biggest oil and gas producer in the nation, said this week that it’s planning additional diesel imports from overseas. The company and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. are also boosting output.
“Robust U.S. economic statistics, plunging fuel supplies, and China’s diesel famine should help oil prices march toward $90 a barrel,” Gordon Kwan, the Hong Kong-based head of regional energy research at Mirae Asset Securities Ltd., said in a report today.
The January contract was at $83.91 a barrel, up 5 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:43 p.m. Singapore time. Prices are up 3 percent this week and 5.7 percent this year. Floor trading was closed yesterday for Thanksgiving in the U.S. and electronic trades are booked with today’s for settlement purposes.
Brent crude for January settlement was at $85.75 a barrel, down 35 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract gained 26 cents, or 0.3 percent, to settle at $86.10 a barrel yesterday.
Oil in New York rose the most in four months on Nov. 24, jumping 3.2 percent, after U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest level since 2008, bolstering optimism economic growth will accelerate in the biggest crude-consuming nation.
With the U.S. markets closed “attention was instead focused on Europe and Ireland bailout talks, with sovereign debt concerns weighing on oil prices,” Mark Pervan, head of commodity research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in a note today.
Crude fell as much as 0.5 percent to $83.45 a barrel during yesterday’s electronic trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ann Koh in Singapore at akoh15@bloomberg.net;Ben Sharples in Melbourne at 8732 or bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell in Singapore at crussell7@bloomberg.net
