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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (2241)	12/31/2002 12:14:26 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5140

NYMEX crude steady $2 off 2-yr peak, seen volatile Monday December 30, 8:48 pm ET SINGAPORE, Dec 31 (Reuters) - NYMEX crude futures held steady in early electronic dealings on Tuesday following a four percent plunge on Monday on expectations more oil will reach the market in the next few weeks. Front-month February crude futures (CLc1) traded six cents down at $31.41 a barrel at 0125 GMT on the off-hours ACCESS platform, more than $2 off a two-year peak at $33.65 reached on Monday. London's IPE Brent crude (LCOc1) for February delivery settled down 50 cents at $29.66 a barrel on Monday. Brokers said crude markets remained vulnerable to sharp moves either way with uncertainty over whether Venezuelan authorities will break a near month-old strike which has brought its oil exports to a trickle. Volatility will also remain from the looming threat of war in Iraq, which supplies about three percent of global crude demand. "In this area I wouldn't want to be long or short of the market. I'd want to sit tight," Vincent Lanci, oil trader at Berard Capital Management in New York, told BBC World television. Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Monday the nation's crude production would rise next week to more than a third of normal levels, or 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). Output in Venezuela, the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, has beeen running at about 200,000 bpd against more than three million bpd in November, hit by nationwide strike since December 2 aimed at forcing President Hugo Chavez to resign. Ramirez said current output was between 600,000 and 700,000 bpd. Lanci said the market was likely to rally to new highs if Venezuela failed to increase output and exports. It supplies about 13 percent of U.S. oil imports. Analysts expect the Venezuela export outage to begin to show up in this week's statistics for U.S. fuel stockpiles, with crude tanks forecast to show a decline of a little over 3.7 million barrels. The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly inventory report after the close of trading in New York. Oil's fall on Monday was also triggered by a senior OPEC delegate who said the cartel was sure to raise oil output quotas by at least 500,000 bpd unless prices dropped in the next two weeks. "The 500,000 barrels a day is sure. More than that is subject to ministerial consultations which are already underway," the OPEC delegate told Reuters. Under an informal output mechanism, OPEC aims to keep the price of its reference basket of seven crudes in a $22 to $28 a barrel range by increasing supply if prices exceed the upper end of the band for 20 consecutive trading days. OPEC's reference basket stood at $31.06 on Friday, the ninth day it has been above the target band. NYMEX heating oil futures for January delivery (HOF3) gained 0.78 cents to 87.52 cents a gallon, while January gasoline futures (HUF3) were up 0.28 cents at 88.20 cents a gallon. On the Singapore Exchange (SGX), the front-month December Middle East crude futures contract (SMEZ2) was untraded after it settled at $27.97 on Monday. The Tokyo Commodity Exchange was closed for week-long New Year holidays. biz.yahoo.com