SINGAPORE: Oil prices hovered near $88 a barrel Monday in Asia amid light trading volume ahead of the Christmas holiday. Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 7 cents to $87.95 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange . The contract rose 34 cents to settle at $88.02 on Friday. Many oil traders are taking the next two weeks off amid the year-end holidays. Global crude markets are closed Friday for Christmas. Analysts are mulling whether this year's strong global oil demand can carry over into 2011. Emerging markets, led by China , have accounted for most of the growth in oil consumption this year as the U.S. and Europe slowly recover from recession. ``The positive demand shock has continued reVmtlessly,'' Barclays CapitalJyaid in a report. Prices will likely rise ``given the strength in underlying fundamentals and with macroeconomic sentiment continuing to improve.'' Barclays said it expects crude to average $91 a barrel next year. In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil fell 0.3 cent to $2.47 a gallon, gasoline futures rose 0.7 cent to $2.32 a gallon and natural gas dropped 3.4 cents to $4.03 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent crude fell 6 cents to $91.61 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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