Heating oil gains on Nymex

23/02/2009

Heating oil has made gains on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) during trading so far this morning (February 23rd).

By 5:58 Eastern Time, March heating oil contracts were trading at $1.199 (82.1p) a gallon, up 0.2 cents on its opening price.

At the close of trading on Friday, heating oil had fallen 0.7 cents amid pervasive weak economic data.

Demand for crude has been hurt dramatically as the global economic conditions have worsened.

This in turn, has encouraged the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to slash production in a bid to support prices.

Speaking to state media on Sunday, Seifollah Jashnsaz, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, said that the cuts had been effective in preventing a price collapse.

According to Reuters, the representative added that he was hopeful that demand will pick up later in the year.

This would likely have an inflationary effect on a range of crude distillates such as heating oil, DERV, red diesel and bunker fuel.