Oil price rises past $93 after sharp drop

[April 08, 2013]  BANGKOK (AP) -- The price of oil rose Monday after sharp losses due to high supplies and weak U.S. employment figures.

Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 77 cents to $93.47 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 56 cents to close at $92.70 on Friday and was down 5 percent from midweek.

The price of oil fell after a weak jobs report cast doubt on the strength of the U.S. economy. The Labor Department reported Friday the economy added 88,000 jobs in March, the fewest in nine months. The slowdown may signal the economy will weaken this spring.

The U.S. Energy Department last week reported that crude in storage was at its highest level since 1990 even though refiners had begun to ramp up gasoline production to get ready for the summer driving season. Now the economy looks like it might not grow fast enough to churn through the nation's high supplies.

"The latest jobs data provide a useful reminder that this is still an uneven recovery in the US economy," said Caroline Bain, commodities analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

She expects oil prices to average less than $90 a barrel in the second quarter of 2013 "reflecting a comfortable market balance, lower refinery runs and only very modest growth in consumption."

Brent Crude, which sets the price of oil used by many U.S. refineries to make gasoline, rose $1.16 to $105.28.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

• Heating oil rose 2.9 cents to $2.939 per gallon.

• Wholesale gasoline rose 2.7 cents to $2.891 per gallon.

• Natural gas rose 3.7 cents to $4.162 per 1,000 cubic feet.

[Associated Press; By PAMELA SAMPSON]

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