Oil vaults back above $50 again

Oil prices vaulted back above $50 a barrel on Tuesday as traders took out insurance ahead of weekly US data on Wednesday that is expected to...

Oil prices vaulted back above $50 a barrel on Tuesday as traders took out insurance ahead of weekly US data on Wednesday that is expected to show a modest increase in lowly heating oil inventories.

US light crude hit a $50.25 high, trading up $1.31 at $49.95 a barrel.

In The Netherlands, a fire at the BP Nerefco refinery, Europe’s second largest, delayed the return from maintenance of processing units, supporting price gains.

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London Brent rose $1.37 to $45.75 a barrel

and London gas oil, the benchmark for European heating oil, rose $13.25 to $449 a tonne. ‘‘There is a stay of execution while the weather does not go cold, but I still think that distillates are a problem in the longer term,’’ said Geoff Pyne, analyst for Sempra Energy.

Traders who are short of heating oil futures contracts fear a repeat of the past two weeks when US distillates inventories, including heating oil and diesel, failed to build as expected.

After 9 weeks of distillate stockdraws, heating oil stocks in the United States are 15 per cent below year-ago levels.

—Reuters