Oil prices: Little change in Asian trading

SINGAPORE: Oil prices showed little change in Asian trading Thursday as the market gauged its response to a U.S. report that showed a drop in crude oil inventories as well as lower-than-expected demand for heating oil and other fuels. Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 1 cent to US$57.70 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midmorning in Singapore.

``It seems traders are opening and closing positions in a short period of time to lock in small gains'' with no fresh news, Koichiro Kamei, of Market Strategy Institute in Tokyo, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Oil prices had initially moved higher Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Energy said U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 400,000 barrels last week to 324.5 million barrels. Analysts expected an average build of 950,000 barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Prices reached US$59.85 after the report was released, but dropped to settle at US$57.71 a barrel when traders considered the more bearish numbers showing a lower demand for distillate fuels. Bitterly cold weather recently in the U.S. Northeast _ which represents 80 percent of the nation's heating oil demand _ has helped lift oil prices 19 percent since Jan. 18, when crude touched a 20-month low of $49.90.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continues to forecast below-normal temperatures across the Northeast until at least Feb. 19.

Traders have not sent prices above US$60 a barrel since the first trading day of the year.

In other Nymex trading Thursday, heating oil rose 0.14 cent to US$1.6675 a gallon, and natural gas prices dropped 2.4 cents to US$7.685 per 1,000 cubic feet.