Crude, heating oil flat ahead of demand report

23 March 2010

Written by John King

Crude and heating oil prices were marginally lower this morning (March 23rd), with traders awaiting the latest US inventories report.

A Bloomberg poll revealed expectations that the latest weekly report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will show a 1.43 million-barrel rise in crude inventories, marking the eighth consecutive week of falling demand.

However, gasoline stocks are expected to fall, the poll revealed.

"The EIA data tends to suggest that oil demand in the US is recovering, particularly gasoline, but it's still at low levels," said David Moore, commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

"I don't see with the fundamentals that oil prices should be squeezed dramatically higher," he added.

As European markets opened, crude was trading around $81.30 (€60) a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while heating oil prices were selling around $2.074 a gallon, with both commodities seeing marginal losses.

Click here for a home heating oil quote