By Eric Yep
Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trade Friday in line with
positive sentiment in wider financial markets after the European
Central Bank raised its growth forecasts and said it would begin
its bond buying program from Monday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures
for delivery in April traded at $51.08 a barrel at 0528 GMT, up
$0.32 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on
London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.47 to $60.95 a barrel.
Oil market investors will also be looking out for the weekly
U.S. rig count data and the U.S. non-farm payrolls report later
today.
Investors have been interpreting U.S. drilling rig numbers,
published by oilfield services company Baker Hughes, as an
indicator of future U.S. oil production levels.
"Despite record declines in the rig count, [oil] production
continued to reach record levels which exacerbated volatility,"
Mark Keenan, Societe Generale's head of commodities research in
Asia, said in a report.
He said declining rig count data and general market nervousness
have triggered a surge in investment flows into exchange traded
products in the last few weeks, which is indicative of speculative
buying.
Additionally, Brent and WTI crude were also the two commodities
most sensitive to market risk, caused by macroeconomic, currency
and interest rate fluctuations, in the past month, Mr. Keenan
added.
Ongoing supply outages in Libya and U.S.-Iran nuclear talks are
also being closely tracked.
The immediate impact of Libya's force majeure on its oil
production will be limited as most output was already offline, but
damage to infrastructure and reservoirs is of greater concern as it
undermines a recovery, BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Group,
said.
"The growing involvement of radical jihadist groups in the
Libyan conflict will lead to a wider targeting of oil and gas
infrastructure in 2015," BMI said in a report.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said that Gulf Arab
countries support international talks over Iran's nuclear program,
but remain concerned about Tehran's regional influence. The U.S. is
currently in talks with Iran to curb Tehran's nuclear
ambitions.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for April--the benchmark
gasoline contract--rose 151 points to $1.9024 a gallon, while April
diesel traded at $1.8871, 98 points higher.
ICE gasoil for March changed hands at $580.75 a metric ton, down
$0.25 from Thursday's settlement.
Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com