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Oil above $48 as investors eye Gaza conflict, OPEC

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-06 14:22

SINGAPORE -- Oil prices remained above $48 a barrel Tuesday in Asia amid signs OPEC is implementing announced production cuts and as Israel's ground offensive in Gaza kept tensions high in the oil-rich Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 63 cents to $48.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. The contract rose overnight $2.47 to settle at $48.81.

Israeli forces seized control of high-rise buildings and attacked smuggling tunnels in the tenth day of fighting with Hamas in Gaza on Monday. The offensive has killed at least 500 people, about 25 percent of whom were civilians, a UN official said Monday.

The UN Security Council met as sales plunged 36 percent in December, and President-elect Barack Obama said Monday the US economy was "bad and getting worse."

"We know the data coming out in January is going to be really bad. Moltke-Leth said. "But the market has discounted that into expectations."

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell 0.14 cent to $1.18 a gallon. Heating oil gained 0.51 cent to $1.58 a gallon while natural gas for February delivery jumped 6.8 cents to $6.14 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, February Brent crude fell 37 cents to $49.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.