Oil futures rose modestly to start the Asian trading week after one of the worst blizzards in decades struck the U.S. East Coast, prompting speculation that heating oil and natural gas prices are poised to jump in the near-term.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for March delivery added 0.06% to USD95.78 per barrel in Asian trading Monday. Last week, New York-traded crude dipped 1.85% for its first decline in nine weeks.
Traders seemed to gloss over comments from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani who said the U.S. is on pace to become energy independent as soon as 2018. Due to soaring production at various shale formations such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford, U.S. oil output has jumped in recent years to the point that the world’s largest oil consumer has become a next exporter of the commodity.
Some estimates have said the U.S. will be energy by 2020 while others have put the date further out at 2030, implying Ambani’s comments are on the ambitious side. The U.S. December trade deficit fell to its lowest level in three years due to increased oil and gas exports.
On a related note, British media reports said this weekend that the U.K. perhaps has enough shale gas reserves to fuel the kingdom for 1,500 years. Elsewhere, the African nation of Cameroon said this weekend that it sees oil production climbing 9% this year to an estimated 90,000 barrels per day.
Last week, Norway’s state-controlled oil producer Statoil said it plans to spend USD20 billion per year in a bid to boost production by 25% per year by 2020. The company spend just USD13.7 billion on exploration and production projects three years ago compared with an estimated 2013 capital budget of USD19 billion.
Elsewhere, Brent futures for April deliver fell 0.01% to USD117.80 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
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Strength in the dollar and a rise in U.S. stocks following better-than-expected trade data drew investors away from the precious metal at the end of last week .
Analysts said the precious yellow metal is likely to remain highly volatile during the day as most investors stayed away from trade ahead of Chines New Year holidays.
Meanwhile, platinum and palladium hovered below their strongest levels in 17 months after
