Oil Prices Rise After Bernanke Comments

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Oil Prices Rise After Bernanke Comments

Thursday, 25 February 2010 09:41

London - World oil prices rose on Wednesday as markets digested the Federal Reserve chairman commented Ben Bernanke, although the reported crude oil stocks in the United States increased.
The main futures contract, New York, light sweet crude for April delivery rose 86 cents to 79.72 dollars per barrel.

Oil Brent North Sea crude for April delivery rose 70 cents to 77.95 dollars per barrel in late London trade.

Bernanke on Wednesday hinted that the U.S. central bank is not ready to stop the rate of ultra-low because it tries to keep the tentative economic recovery on track.

Chairman of the Fed, in a semi-annual report to Congress, said he saw the high unemployment is still stubborn, which will prompt the Fed to remain on the path stimulusnya, did little to alter monetary policy.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Department said crude oil reserves jumped to three million barrels last week in the United States - the country's largest energy consumer in the world.

Meanwhile, crude futures rose a day after falling sharply as a response to decreased consumer confidence in the United States.

Traders are also tracking events in France, where workers in a refinery to end a strike that has made the fuel pump dry, after winning concessions from the oil giant

The total in dispute cuts in the sector.

Total Workers at an oil refinery in Feyzin, near the eastern city of Lyon, and four other factories across the country, voting in their hundreds to end the eight-day strike at the afternoon meeting.

Oil companies grappling with major world crisis in the refinery sector, which forced them to cut big to stem losses.

The total is the sixth largest oil company in the world based on sales and the largest companies in France based on market capitalization.

Pump in hundreds of filling stations had run out of fuel during the strike a few days ago just because the family attacked the road to medium-term holidays.

Also on Wednesday, warned environmental campaign pending disaster because the flow of massive oil into the River Po, Italy after breaking a saboteur and former refinery spill.

About 600,000 liters of oil moved downstream along the River Lambro, past three barriers that have been placed to block and absorb the oil layer, and flows into the Po near the northern city of Piacenza, officials said.

The team tried hard to stem the flow by erecting barriers but the campaign worried that their efforts will not be enough to prevent an environmental disaster.