Oil prices were mixed in Asia Wednesday as Libyan rebels have agreed to reopen the remaining two terminals on Wednesday, yet lingering worries over the threat of a sudden worsening in the Iraq crisis weighed on prices.
Libyan rebels who seized key oil ports have agreed to reopen the remaining two terminals at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. If fulfilled, the deal would bring back around 500,000 barrels per day of crude oil export capacity.
- On the New York Mercantile Exchange, Crude Oil rose 0.10% to trade at $105.45 a barrel
- On the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent Oil was at $ 112.38 a barrel, up by 0.08%
Oil markets have been rattled for weeks by supply concerns due to the Ukraine crisis, along with a takeover of large cities in Iraq by Sunni militants, which has stoked fears of disruption in exports from OPEC’s second-biggest producer.
- NYMEX Gasoline rose 0.10%, 0.29 points to trade at $ 303.95
- NYMEX Heating Oil added 0.07%, 0.22 points to trade at $ 298.04
- ICE Gasoline gained 0.19% to trade at $ 919.75
Dealers now await the release of a U.S. stockpiles report for clues about the demand in the world’s top crude consumer. Official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) due later in the day.
Investors will be looking to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report due on Thursday for further indications on the strength of the labor market.