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Oil prices were flat Wednesday, ahead of a weekly report expected to show a rise in crude supplies over the past week.
At 9: 45 a. m., U. S. light crude for March delivery rose 3 cents to $41. 61 a barrel. It touched a session high of 42. 45 a barrel and a session low of S41.02. Concerns about oversupply helped push oil lower Tuesday. Oil tumbled $4. 15 to $41. 58 a barrel. The oil market was likely bouncing off a stock market rebound and a weaker U.S. dollar Wednesday. U.S. crude oil price has rebounded from below$33 barrel over the past week as an economic stimulus package makes it way through Congress. The Energy Information Administration releases its weekly inventory data at 10: 30 a. m. Analysts surveyed by Platts expect an increase of 3. 4 million barrels in U. S. crude stockpiles for the week ended Jan. 23.
Oil's supply-demand picture remains weak with a large stock build in the United States and extremely weak demand in China, the world's second-largest energy consumer. Oil supplies in the U. S. have gone up significantly in the past several weeks. Last week, the Energy Department reported supplies of crude increased by 6. million barrels in the week ended Jan. 16, when analysts had been expecting an increase of only 1. 9 million barrels. Crude prices have dropped more than $100 from a record peak above $147 a barrel in July last year, sunk by plummeting demand amid the recession.
Demand is dependent on the ongoing economic uncertainty and whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about40% of the world''soil,will meet its pledge to cut output by 2. million barrels a day this month.
47.What helped to prevent the price of oil increase on Tuesday?