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 Gasoline futures led the U.S. oil complex with traders and analysts
citing a report of an upcoming refinery shutdown on the Gulf Coast
as supporting the contract.
But volumes were low in all markets as traders kept to the sidelines
after the Easter holiday weekend with the London market remaining
closed for Easter Monday.
U.S. crude futures jumped 30 cents a barrel after the Conference
Board said its leading economic indicators, a gauge of future
economic activity, rose in March.
But they gradually backed off the gains throughout the day, settling
7 cents higher at $104.37 a barrel. Brent crude settled 42 cents
higher at $109.95 a barrel, having briefly flirted with $110 a
barrel.
"My feeling is that we're still concerned about Ukraine and we're
still getting a little support from the economy ... But we're not up
by much and volumes are still light because people are out for the
holidays," said Phil Flynn, analyst with Price Futures Group.
The May contract for U.S. crude oil futures will expire at the end
of Tuesday but analysts said they did not expect volatility stemming
from a switch to the June contract.
Brent crude oil found support from the war of words between Russia
and the United States over Ukraine, where a peace accord agreed in
Geneva last week appeared to unravel after three died in the east in
a Sunday attack on a checkpoint.
With U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Kiev, the U.S. state
department suggested Washington was considering sanctioning Russian
President Vladimir Putin himself. Moscow, meanwhile, eased rules for
Russian speakers in the former Soviet Union to acquire Russian
citizenship.
The crisis in Ukraine has led to the worst confrontation between the
United States and Russia since the Cold War and has supported oil
prices due to concerns over what impact any future sanctions may
have in particular on oil supply.
"We may see Brent rise further by $1 to $2 a barrel if the Ukraine
crisis worsens, but it will retrace as the overall market is well
supplied," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at brokerage
Newedge Japan.
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Brent also strengthened after the state department said it had
indications that chemical weapons were used in Syria and would
examine allegations that the government was responsible.
U.S. GASOLINE SPIKES
RBOB gasoline futures rose over 1.0 percent earlier in the session
and by 3:50 p.m. EDT (1950 GMT) they were 1.05 percent higher at
$3.0867 a gallon.
Traders cited a Bloomberg report that Motiva Enterprises would shut
a crude unit and a catalytic reformer unit later this month at its
600,000 barrel per day Port Arthur refinery in Texas, the largest in
the country.
Motiva, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi
Aramco, did not respond to requests for confirmation or denial of
the report.
"That's enough in a low volume day to make RBOB outperform the rest
of the complex. All in all, though, a 10-day outage in a shoulder
period is not a big deal," said Addison Armstrong, senior director
of market research at Tradition Energy.
For a 24-hour analysis on Brent:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/
F/1/20142104092658.jpg
(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London and Manash Goswami
in Singapore; editing by Jane Baird and Tom Brown, Marguerita Choy
and Chris Reese)
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