US gasoline leads oil price rise as market awaits Powell briefing

www.channelnewsasia.com First created : 05 February 2003 1037 hrs (SST) 0237 hrs (GMT) Last modified : 06 February 2003 0928 hrs (SST) 0128 hrs (GMT)   World oil prices rose on Tuesday as nerves tightened on the eve of Secretary of State Colin Powell's address on Iraq to the UN Security Council.

US gasoline led the price jump as the 2-month disruption to supply from strike-bound Venezuela and strong winter heating fuel demand drains US refined product inventories.Advertisement In New York, March crude futures rose 82 cents, or 2.5 percent, to US$33.58 a barrel.

Meanwhile Brent crude in London rose 84 cents to US$31.09.

Analysts said that having taken a back seat on Monday, the Iraq crisis was returning to the fore ahead of Mr Powell's address to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Mr Powell is expected to try to back up Washington's claim that Iraq has not been complying with a key disarmament resolution.

On Monday, he said while he will not have "smoking gun" evidence of Iraq's defiance of disarmament demands he will make a "convincing case" that Baghdad possesses banned weapons.

US oil supplies have already been tightened by a 65-day opposition strike in Venezuela, which normally supplies over 13 percent of American crude and refined product imports.

Venezuela's oil supply is gradually recovering after the government succeeded in using replacement workers to restart operations.

The opposition there has called off strike in the non-oil sectors.