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Strategies & Market Trends : Strictly: Drilling II -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nspolar who wrote (9270)	3/12/2002 6:34:40 PM
From: isopatch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36161

ns. APIs showed stronger draws than expected But IEA tells us not to get too bullish.. cbs.marketwatch.com <NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- A drop in last week's distillate supplies outpaced market expectations by a margin of 3 to 1, sending petroleum futures prices higher in after-hours trading Tuesday. The American Petroleum Institute said distillates supplies, as of the week ended March 8, dropped by 6.56 million barrels, compared with average market expectations for a draw of only 1.75 million barrels, according to Bridgeton Global. The data shows that "demand is back and in a big way," said Phil Flynn, senior energy analyst at Alaron.com in Chicago. "The economy has really bounced back and it's starting to show up in the demand side of the equation, with airlines getting back to normal since Sept. 11 and stress on demand due to military usage." The manufacturing sector also appears to be rebounding, he said. Meanwhile, gasoline supplies fell by 3.42 million barrels in the latest week, the API said, well above average market expectations for a decline of 1.75 million barrels. The decline in gasoline supplies reflects an increase in demand from consumer travel, poor refining margins over the last few months and refiners switching over from winter blends of gasoline to summer blends, said Flynn, calling the data "impressive." Following the news, April heating oil tacked on 1.26 cents to 64.75 a gallon and April unleaded gasoline added 1.11 cents to 79.65 cents a gallon in after-hours trading. April crude rose 38 cents to $24.58 a barrel. The API also said crude supplies fell by 443,000 barrels, lower than average forecasts for a 1.25-million-barrel decline. IEA sees shallow recovery A monthly report from the International Energy Agency warned against reading too much into the apparent U.S. economic recovery Tuesday, adding that the outlook for global demand still remains weak, according to MV Energy. The agency cut its 2002 forecast for oil demand growth by 80,000 barrels a day to 420,000 barrels a day. "The second- and third-quarter estimates have been raised, in line with broad indicators showing that the U.S. economy bottomed out earlier than expected," the report said. "But this is offset by slower demand growth later on as the economic recovery is expected to be shallow." The IEA also lowered its estimate of February OPEC production, excluding Iraq, by 390,000 barrels a day to 22.44 million barrels a day, but that's still 740,000 barrels a day over the cartel's quota. OPEC is widely expected to leave output target unchanged when it meets Friday, after dropping its quota by 1.5 million barrels back in January, according to analyst at Bridgeton Global. During the regular trading session on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for April delivery fell by 11 cents to close at $24.20 a barrel. Also see Energy Stocks. Among other energy futures, April unleaded gasoline fell 0.56 cent to 78.54 cents a gallon and April heating oil climbed by 0.04 cent to 63.49 cents a gallon. Brent crude for April delivery closed at $23.70 a barrel, down 19 cents on London's International Petroleum Exchange. Also on Nymex, April natural gas fell by 0.3 cent to $3.018 per million British thermal units. Metals shares up on gold's price gain Shares of most metals companies climbed for a second-straight trading session Tuesday as futures prices for gold traded higher at the $294-an-ounce level. On the Commodities Exchange division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, April gold closed at $293.80 an ounce, up $2.50. See Metals Stocks.>