NYMEX March crude surges after hurdling $29.10

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile (NYMEX) jumped in early trade Thursday after buy stops were triggered as crude for March delivery breezed past resistance at $29.10 a barrel, its previous contract high, traders said.

At 10:24 a.m. (1522 GMT) the front month contract was trading at $29.25, up 48 cents, after posting a print high of $29.28.

The March contract struck $29.10 on January 21, on its first day as front month contract. On January 20, February crude peaked at $29.95, the highest since January 1991 during the Gulf War, before expiring that day at $29.66.

March gasoline futures posted a new nine-year high at 80.75 cents a gallon, up 1.09 cents from Wednesday's settlement. It later traded at 80.35 cents, up 0.69 cent. On Wednesday, the contract moved as high as 80.20 cents, also a nine-year high.

Gasoline's strength stems from market perception that with current tight crude supplies and already low inventories of gasoline, a supply squeeze for the product could develop in the summer if inventories aren't increased soon.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), February 10, 2000

Answers

Why are these high oil prices not reflected in nationwide, over-the-board hikes in gasoline and diesel? It seems the Northeast is the only area to be getting hit.

Lucy

-- Lucy (windsng@123.com), February 10, 2000.

Perhaps this explains why the DOW Transports are off over 59 points today.

-- Henry Howfambofergilfer (howfambofergilfer@hotmail.com), February 10, 2000.

NO SPR OIL SWAP DECISION UNTIL RICHARDSON BACK FROM MIDEAST END FEB-US OFFICIAL

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The White House will not decide until the end of February, at the earliest, whether to adopt an Energy Department proposal to exchange crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve with oil firms, a Clinton administration official told Reuters on Thursday.

The decision will await the return of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson from a trip to the Middle East at the end of this month, the official said. "There will be no decision on the oil swap proposal until after Richardson returns from Saudi Arabia," he said.

That means that the department's proposal, which could put millions of barrels of oil in the open market, could not be implemented until mid-March at the earliest. It takes a minium 15 days for the bidding process, and the physical removal of oil from the stockpile, to be completed.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), February 10, 2000.