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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Gault who wrote (38158)	2/24/1999 3:13:00 PM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

18 NYMEX crude gains late, but supply pressure seen NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Front-month crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) edged up in afternoon trade Wednesday, but still remained under pressure from brimming U.S. supplies reflected in a stockbuild in the latest weekly data, traders said. At 1413 EST/1913 GMT, April crude was up 15 cents at $12.63 a barrel, after touching an intraday high this afternoon of $12.74. Earlier, it had hit an intraday low of $12.26. Crude futures moved up despite news that Tosco Corp. was moving up the planned turnaround of its 140,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) cracking unit in Linden, N.J.. The turnaround at the Bayway unit, the largest of its kind in the U.S., will last 45 days, beginning in March and well into April, according to company spokesman. The company's announcement of the turnaround shift confirms rumors swirling in the market for days. Heating oil futures trimmed earlier losses and then gained along with crude, but still threatened to move lower as a warming trend is forecast in the U.S. Northeast, the main heating oil consuming region. March heating oil was up 0.51 cent at 32.35 cents a gallon, after hitting an intraday high of 32.60 cents. "The market has been moving up technically since late last week and despite the bearish builds reported, crude has managed to hold," said Cresvale International analyst Tom Bentz. Short covering by funds and some fresh buying are combining to move the market up, he added. Despite the news from Tosco and reports of two refinery fires, gasoline futures remained marginally lower. One of the two refinery fires shut down Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s 153,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Romeoville, Ill., on Wednesday. The gasoline futures sector has been weak from the opening after the latest industry and government weekly status reports showed large inventory increases. As front-month gasoline and heating oil contracts expire on Friday, traders said they expected some volatility to develop in the products sectors. March gasoline was down 0.24 cent at 34.60 cents a gallon. It had hit an intraday low of 33.90 cents and touched a session high of 34.90 cents. The April contract was off 0.20 cent at 37.90 cents a gallon, below its session high of 38.25 cents. The contract had dipped to a session low of 37.25 cents. At 1416 EST/11916 GMT, April Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange in London traded at $11.05, up 11 cents, recovering from earlier losses.