Oil prices fell Tuesday following forecasts of warmer weather in the United States.
The northeastern part of the country, which accounts for 80 percent of the nation's heating oil demand, should have above-normal temperatures through early March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
"The market's melting down has a lot to do with the snow melting," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.
The March contract for light, sweet crude, which was to expire later Tuesday, fell 79 cents to US$57.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Europe. On London's ICE futures exchange, April Brent crude oil futures fell 94 cents to US$57.20 a barrel.
Heating oil futures fell more than 3 cents to US$1.6205 a gallon on the Nymex, while natural gas prices dropped more than 22 cents to US$7.294 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Traders were also watching for news after a weekend fire that caused the shutdown of a U.S. refinery, and the kidnapping of three Eastern European oil workers in Nigeria.
Valero Energy Corp. was uncertain when production would resume at its 158,000-barrel-a-day McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, which was shut down due to a weekend fire, spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said Monday.
The northeastern part of the country, which accounts for 80 percent of the nation's heating oil demand, should have above-normal temperatures through early March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
"The market's melting down has a lot to do with the snow melting," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.
The March contract for light, sweet crude, which was to expire later Tuesday, fell 79 cents to US$57.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Europe. On London's ICE futures exchange, April Brent crude oil futures fell 94 cents to US$57.20 a barrel.
Heating oil futures fell more than 3 cents to US$1.6205 a gallon on the Nymex, while natural gas prices dropped more than 22 cents to US$7.294 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Traders were also watching for news after a weekend fire that caused the shutdown of a U.S. refinery, and the kidnapping of three Eastern European oil workers in Nigeria.
Valero Energy Corp. was uncertain when production would resume at its 158,000-barrel-a-day McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, which was shut down due to a weekend fire, spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown said Monday.
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