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To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (38689)	3/2/1999 4:40:00 PM
From: Platter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

12 NYMEX crude settles up on pre-API rally, Iraq woes NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Crude oil and refined product futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) ended with good gains Tuesday, helped by a short-covering rally ahead of weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), traders said. Traders said prospects that Iraqi oil exports may be delayed as it might take more than just a few days to restore a northern Iraq pipeline disabled after U.S. air strikes in the past two days also prompted some short covering. NYMEX April crude settled at $12.51, up 27 cents, after last trading at $12.48. Its intraday high was $12.55 and its session low was $12.32. Front-month heating oil finished at 32.48 cents a gallon, up 0.54 cent. It last traded at 32.45 cents, near its late session high of 32.55 cents. In earlier trade, it dipped to a session low of 32.00 cents. April gasoline ended at 38.44 cents a gallon, up 0.66 cent. It last traded at 38.40 cents, below its session high of 38.50 cents a gallon. The contract posted a session low of 37.40 cents. In London, April Brent crude last traded up 27 cents at $10.98 a barrel. In a Reuters poll, traders and analysts forecast an increase of 2.0 million barrels in U.S. crude stocks for the week ended Feb. 26 after refinery run cuts stemming from poor margins and outages due to a rash of fires. They also forecast a draw of 1.9 million barrels in distillate stocks, which include heating oil, due to a cold snap early last week in the U.S. Northeast, the key heating oil consuming region, and seasonal factors. The market participants expected an average drop of 900,000 barrels in gasoline stocks, partly due to the run cuts. On Monday, reports of the disruption at the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline had little effect on the oil markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Iraq has about 3.1 million barrels of oil in storage at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, enough to continue loading until Thursday or Friday, according to shipping sources. However, Iraqi officials say it could take "days or weeks" to resume exports along its northern pipeline outlet through Turkey. "If there was a factor that kept crude up today, it was probably belief that Iraq might have technical difficulties in bringing back its (northern) export pipeline into full operation," said a Midwestern trader for a large oil multinational. Indeed, Iraqi crude oil lifters were by Tuesday asking to defer March loading cargoes as fears were growing that recent U.S. air attacks on the Iraq-Turkey pipeline will disrupt Meditterranean shipments, according to a trading source. A major lifter for U.S. destinations has already asked state oil marketer SOMO to defer a mid-March cargo, the source said.