Oil prices headed towards 50 dollars a barrel Monday in the wake of freezing weather in the US northeast, a major consumer of heating fuel, and ahead of an Opec meeting and Iraq’s elections.
Traders were keeping a close eye also over Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, after unions there met to decide whether to strike, in a move labour leaders said could disrupt oil exports, totalling hundreds of thousands of barrels daily.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March rose 55 cents to $49.08 in electronic deals, having closed up 1.22 dollars at $48.53 on Friday.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in March gained 48 cents to $46.21 having won $1.41 last Friday.
“Certainly, there are a number of rather bullish factors at work in the market like the winter storm in the US northeast,” said Victor Shum, a partner with US energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore.
“This week is also the last week before the Opec meeting on the 30th and the upcoming Iraqi elections so there are a lot of uncertainties in the marketplace about what Opec will do and the extent of possibly more sabotage on oil infrastructure in Iraq ahead of the polls,” Shum said.
