Crude oil rose above $82 a barrel after the Energy Department reported U.S. imports fell to a seasonal low and fuel inventories dropped. Crude imports slipped 0.8 percent last week to the smallest level for the second week in March since 2002. Supplies of gasoline and distillate fuels, which include heating oil and diesel, decreased more than forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna today left production targets unchanged to support current price levels.
“Imports are down to a really, really small trickle,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks & Opinions LLC in Houston. “We’re not able to bring in as much oil as we’d like to because the oil that is out there is going elsewhere. When the economy does start to grow and the refineries start to pick up runs, that crude isn’t going to be there.” Crude oil for April delivery gained $1.22, or 1.5 percent, to $82.92 a barrel at the 2:30 p.m. close of floor trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have increased 69 percent in the past year. Oil traded at $82.50 a barrel before the release of the inventory report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington.
Oil imports decreased by 64,000 barrels a day last week to 8.43 million. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries delivered 47 percent of its crude and refined products to the Asia Pacific region in 2008, up from 45 percent the year before, according to data on its Web site. That compares with a decline in the U.S. to 22 percent in 2008 from 26 percent in 2007.....Read the entire article.
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