Crude prices spike before U.N. speech

www.chron.com Feb. 5, 2003, 12:36AM

NEW YORK -- Crude oil futures ended sharply higher Tuesday, as petroleum products rallied and traders covered short positions ahead of Secretary of State Colin Powell's appearance today at the United Nations.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for March delivery rose 82 cents to close at $33.58 a barrel.

March heating oil rose 4.38 cents to close at 96.19 cents a gallon, while March gasoline jumped 4.38 cents to close at $1.006 a gallon.

Natural gas for February delivery fell .04 cent to settle at $5.762 per thousand cubic feet.

On London's International Petroleum Exchange, March Brent settled up 84 cents at $31.09 a barrel.

There is "anticipation that Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday will bring the U.S., if not the world, one step closer to war with Iraq," said Tim Evans, an analyst at IFR Pegasus.

Powell's report to the Security Council will dominate today's headlines, but traders will also be scrutinizing weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute and the Department of Energy.

For the first time in weeks, analysts are expecting the data to show a build in U.S. crude oil inventories, thanks to a surge in imports and low refinery utilization.

Most analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expect crude stocks to show an average build of 2 million barrels for the week that ended Jan. 31, as Venezuelan shipments to the United States continue to rise.

Venezuelan oil output has climbed to 1.25 million barrels a day, according to dissident staff at state monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

The increase in Venezuelan production could prompt the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to consider an output cut in March, OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said Tuesday.

But analysts and some OPEC officials say that much will depend on whether there is a war in Iraq and how much oil production is disrupted as a result.