Oil hovers below $91 as US crude supplies jump

[February 02, 2011]  SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices hovered below $91 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as a report showed U.S. gasoline and crude supplies rose more than expected last week, suggesting the recovery in demand remains uneven.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 13 cents at $90.64 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.42 to settle at $90.77 a barrel on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude fell 9 cents to $101.65 a barrel ICE Futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that gasoline inventories rose 3.9 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had forecast an increase of 2.0 million barrels. Inventories of crude rose 3.8 barrels and distillates fell 1.1 million barrels, the API said.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.

Oil has come off two-year highs above $92 earlier this week as investor fears eased that chaos in Egypt could disrupt the two million barrels of crude per day that pass through the Suez Canal and an adjacent pipeline.

There's "mounting evidence that crude supplies through either the Suez Canal or SUMED pipeline are unlikely to be disrupted as a result of continued Egyptian street uprisings," Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.

In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil was steady at $2.76 a gallon and gasoline fell 0.6 cent to $2.51 a gallon. Natural gas futures for March delivery were up 0.9 cents at $4.36 per 1,000 cubic feet.

[Associated Press; By ALEX KENNEDY]

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