NEW YORK, Feb 4 (AFP): Oil prices rebounded slightly yesterday, reversing two days of losses, as market attention returned to the Iran nuclear crisis, analysts said. The UN atomic agency delayed until Saturday a pivotal decision on sending Iran's disputed nuclear programme to the UN Security Council. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, rose 69 cents to 65.37 dollars per barrel in pit deals. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery increased 51 cents to 63.39 dollars per barrel in electronic trading. Crude futures "were modestly higher... as it corrected some of yesterday's dip on continued concerns about Iran", analysts at the Sucden brokerage said. New York prices are nearly three dollars below their level Monday, when the benchmark contract closed at 68.35 dollars. Traders have focused on growing US energy inventories in the past few days, but concerns remain over the Iran nuclear issue. US crude stocks were roughly 10 per cent higher than they were a year ago, according to the US Department of Energy weekly report published Wednesday. Crude stocks rose 1.9 million barrels in the week ended January 27 to total 321 million barrels, the DoE said, sharply outstripping US analysts' expectations of a 383,000-barrel build. The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors had been expected to vote Friday to refer Iran to the Security Council after three years of investigation into the country's nuclear programme, which the United States charges hides secret atomic weapons work. Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has sent a letter to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei warning that Iran would go ahead with industrial-level uranium enrichment, the process used to make what can be nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material, if sent before the Security Council. There are also fears that Iran could withhold its oil exports as a retaliatory measure. The oil-rich nation is the second-biggest producer within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, exporting 2.7 million barrels of oil per day.
|