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

To: VLAD who wrote (38209)	2/24/1999 5:07:00 PM
From: Platter	Respond to of 95453

NYMEX crude end with slim gains despite stockbuild NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled with slim gains Wednesday, despite a bearish stockbuild in weekly inventories, traders said. Crude's gains were technical, they said, as the stockbuild for the week ended Feb. 19 pushed up U.S. supplies to their highest level since mid-December. "This would normally be bearish, but the market has been technically driven since late last week," said a NYMEX floor trader. "Anyway, the inventory increase was within market expectations," he added. After popping up late to an intraday high of $12.74 a barrel, NYMEX front-month crude eased and settled at $12.61, up 13 cents, after last trading at $12.60. The contract slipped to a session low of $12.26 in early trade. Heating oil futures added about half a cent to their previous day's settle, gaining strength on short covering, ahead of products' front month contract expiry on Friday. Gasoline futures posted minor gains. The sector stayed bearish despite news of refinery shutdowns due to maintenance and fires in the last two days. March heating oil settled at 32.35 cents a gallon, up 0.51 cent after last trading at 32.30 cents. It traded between 31.40/32.60 cents. The April contract ended at 32.79 cents, up 0.50 cent, after trading between 31.95/33.05 cents. March gasoline settled nearly flat at 34.85 cents a gallon, up 0.01 cent. It last traded at 34.80 cents, near its session high of 34.90 cents. It posted a session low of 33.90 cents. April Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange in London last traded at $11.08 a barrel, up 14 cents. Traders said some profit-taking on gasoline futures occurred after Tosco Corp. announced it was moving up maintenance turnaround at the 140,000 barrel-per-day fluid catalytic cracking unit at its Bayway refinery in Linden, N.J. The company cited poor petroleum market fundamentals for the move, confirming rumors that had been swirling in the market for days. The turnaround was originally planned for the third quarter this year, the company said. One of the refinery fires shut down Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s 153,000 barrel-per-day Romeoville, Ill., refinery Wednesday. On Tuesday, a fire struck Tosco's 100,000-bpd Avon refinery, about 25 miles northeast of San Francisco. The death toll at the fire rose to three on Wednesday. The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday a build of 1.9 million barrels in U.S. crude stocks, but the U.S. Department of Energy put the build at 3.0 million barrels. API also said gasoline stocks rose 2.2 million barrels while distillates, which include heating oil, fell 828,000 barrels. The DOE reported gasoline stocks were up 3.3 million barrels, while distillates were trimmed 1.9 million barrels.