By
Samantha Sunne
NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil prices fell on Monday, giving up early gains as
traders and investors bet that fighting in Libya would not take much of a bite
out of global production.
Prices
rose early on concerns about the damage in Libya, after an oil official said
the country's two largest ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, were being kept shut.
But prices retreated as investors concluded that disruptions in Libya will not
remove much supply from the global market.
"Everyone's
trying to put the issues in Libya into perspective," said Carl Larry,
director of business development at Frost and Sullivan. "They have lost a
lot of fuel, but what they're losing is a terminal, not real production on a
pipeline.”
Global
benchmark Brent crude was down 9 cents at $59.36 (38 pounds) by 11:47 a.m. EST
(1647 GMT), retreating from a session high of $60.43. In the previous session,
Brent shed 79 cents.
U.S.
crude also fell 8 cents a barrel to $54.65, following Brent down after hitting
a session high of $55.74.
Oil
tanks at Es Sider in Libya have been on fire for days after a rocket hit one of
them, officials said. The OPEC member nation is producing 128,000 barrels a
day, an official said, down from the 1.6 million it produced prior to Muammar
Gaddafi's ouster in 2011.
The
early rise in prices prompted selling, said Tariq Zahir of Tyche Capital
Partners. "Any time you see any kind of a push up higher, some sellers
emerge to go on the short side again," said Zahir.
Trading
volume was up from last week, as traders returned after the Christmas holiday,
but was still below normal levels, Larry said.
Oil
prices this year are on track for the biggest decline since 2008 and the
second-biggest annual fall since futures started trading in the 1980s.
(Additional
reporting by Keith Wallis in Singapore and Simon Falush in London; Editing by
Michael Urquhart, Jessica Resnick-Ault and David Gregorio)
source:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-oil-climbs-above-55-010451280.html
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