Oil pushes above $59 per barrel

Oil prices recouped light losses on Tuesday, climbing above $59 a barrel as the coldest weather of the US winter was expected to draw down distillate stocks.
US crude oil futures gained 37 cents to $59.11 a barrel by 0733 GMT, following a loss of 28 cents a day ago after Nigerian unions called off a strike in the world's eighth-largest exporter. London Brent crude gained 40 cents to $58.50.
Oil rallied to a one-month peak of $59.95 on Monday after surging 6.5 percent the previous week, lifted by the onset of a chilly spell in the US Northeast, ending months of unusually warm conditions that had curtailed heating fuel demand.
US forecasters say temperatures in the Northeast are expected stay at below the normal average for the next six to 10 days. The National Weather Service said heating demand in the United States was expected to be about 20 percent above normal.
With inventories still relatively high, however, analysts said the late-winter burst of demand was unlikely to provide impetus for a convincing break above resistance at $60.
"The surge in heating demand will not significantly lift oil prices since the winter is almost over, but it will encourage prices to maintain the current level for now," said Tetsu Emori, chief strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures.
US distillate stocks are likely to have fallen by 3.2 million barrels on strong heating oil demand last week, while gasoline stocks probably rose by 1.4 million barrels, an eighth consecutive build as refiners build summer stocks early, analysts said.
Crude oil stocks were expected to have risen by 1 million barrels, a preliminary Reuters poll shows. Prices eased on Monday after Nigerian oil unions suspended plans for an indefinite strike ahead of a meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo over violence in the Niger Delta, which has shut in a fifth of the country's output.
Oil's swift recovery from a sharp fall to below $50 in mid-January has silenced any talk of Opec action for now, and some members signalled that further cuts may also be unlikely at its next meeting on March 15 if prices held firm.
Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru said on Monday that he was pleased with the recent rise in oil prices and that Opec is likely to keep output unchanged at its next meeting in March.