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Oil To Hit $90/Bbl In A Week On Demand-Libya Oil Head

Oil To Hit $90/Bbl In A Week On Demand-Libya Oil Head
dj
Τετ, 7 Απριλίου 2010 - 18:36
Oil prices could hit $90 a barrel as early as next week spurred on by rising demand from the U.S., Libya's top oil official said ahead of the release of a closely watched U.S. stockpiles report.
Oil prices could hit $90 a barrel as early as next week spurred on by rising demand from the U.S. , Libya 's top oil official said ahead of the release of a closely watched U.S. stockpiles report.

"I expect them to hit $90 and continue to go up a little more by next week," Shokri Ghanem, Chairman of Libya 's National Oil Co. told Zawya Dow Jones by telephone.

"Demand is part of it, demand is increasing because the economy is improving and stocks are going down in America so we are expecting prices to increase soon," he added.

The U.S. Energy Department is scheduled to release its Weekly Petroleum Status Report Wednesday in Washington that should shed light on whether supply and demand justify the recent futures rally.

Oil prices were higher in Asian trade Wednesday. New York 's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, rose 10 cents to $86.94 a barrel.

Ghanem ruled out the need for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, to address the sharp rise in prices before its next scheduled gathering in Vienna in October.

"There is no guarantee that this trend will continue for more than a week or two," he said.

A 3 million-barrel decrease in gasoline stocks reported by American Petroleum Institute in U.S. after-hours trading Tuesday might suggest a gasoline demand rise ahead of summer driving season, but many traders stayed on the sidelines, awaiting weekly oil data from the Energy Information Administration.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones are expecting the EIA to report a 1.3 million barrel increase in crude oil inventories for the week ended April 2, and 1 million barrel fall in gasoline stockpiles.

"What we are seeing is the global economic recovery can do pretty well with oil prices higher than they have been in the past," said Kevin Norrish, commodities analyst at Barclays Capital. "We can see prices staying strong, though we don't think prices are going to average $90 a barrel on a sustained basis until the fourth quarter."

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