Oil steadies near US$145

LONDON – Oil steadied near $145 a barrel yesterday as concern eased about disruption to supply in Brazil and after US oil firm Chevron resumed some production shut down in Nigeria.

Oil workers in Brazil started a five-day strike on Monday, but state-run energy company Petrobras said it had already reversed most of the production losses on its platforms. “The market ran out of steam yesterday (Monday) when people discovered that the Petrobras strike wasn’t having a severe impact,” said Christopher Bellew, a broker at Bache Commodities.”Technically, the recovery towards the end of last week and the strength we saw yesterday still keeps the bull trend very much intact.”Oil also eased as Chevron said production has been restored at the 120 000-barrel per day Escravos pipeline in Nigeria, resolving one of the disruptions that has cut supply in the major exporter.Crude has risen from US$20 a barrel in January 2002 on growing demand from nations like China and rising cash inflows into commodities from investors seeking to hedge against inflation and the weak dollar.The euro hit a three-month high versus a broadly weaker dollar yesterday, and investors said renewed weakness in the US currency could lend support to oil.”The financial crisis is not over, we are not optimistic, the dollar should get weaker and we should see more investor money turn to commodities and energy,” said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at Astmax Co Ltd in Tokyo.Nampa-Reuters”The market ran out of steam yesterday (Monday) when people discovered that the Petrobras strike wasn’t having a severe impact,” said Christopher Bellew, a broker at Bache Commodities.”Technically, the recovery towards the end of last week and the strength we saw yesterday still keeps the bull trend very much intact.”Oil also eased as Chevron said production has been restored at the 120 000-barrel per day Escravos pipeline in Nigeria, resolving one of the disruptions that has cut supply in the major exporter.Crude has risen from US$20 a barrel in January 2002 on growing demand from nations like China and rising cash inflows into commodities from investors seeking to hedge against inflation and the weak dollar.The euro hit a three-month high versus a broadly weaker dollar yesterday, and investors said renewed weakness in the US currency could lend support to oil.”The financial crisis is not over, we are not optimistic, the dollar should get weaker and we should see more investor money turn to commodities and energy,” said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at Astmax Co Ltd in Tokyo.Nampa-Reuters