clarinews@clarinet.com (WALTER ANDREWS) (02/02/90)
_U_n_i_t_e_d_ _P_r_e_s_s_ _I_n_t_e_r_n_a_t_i_o_n_a_l Oil prices ended mixed in a light, directionless market Thursday with many traders away from the trading pits to attend the annual dinner of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Aggressive early gasoline buying by a large New York trader helped support the gasoline and crude markets despite a government report showing large inventory buildups last week, said Larry Lawrence of Elders Futures Inc. in New York. Unleaded gasoline rose 0.09 cent to 62.70 cents a gallon in the Merc's first day of trading the March delivery contract. Unleaded gasoline gained 0.15 cent to 61.60 cents a gallon on the important New York Harbor cash market. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery gained 2 cents to finish the day on the Merc at $22.70 a barrel. It gained 5 cents on the U.S. Gulf Coast cash market to $22.65 a barrel. Home heating oil fell 0.82 cent to 56.74 cents a gallon as unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast continued to dampen demand. It dropped 0.80 cent on the New York Harbor spot market. The Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline inventories last week rose 10.5 million barrels -- 3.2 million barrels more than the oil industry's American Petroleum Institute reported Tuesday. The report should have helped drive prices down. The EIA also reported that crude stocks declined 2.1 million barrels compared to the 600,000 barrel decline reported by the API. Merc prices dropped sharply toward the end of the day because many wouldbe buyers had left the trading floor, Lawrence said. On the European spot market, Britain's widely traded North Sea Brent for February delivery remained level at $20.60 a barrel. The United Arab Emirates' Dubai light -- the key OPEC Middle East crude from the Middle East, mainly exported to the Far East -- gained 5 cents to $16.85 a barrel. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, heating oil was quoted at 53.51 cents a gallon, a decline of 0.16 cent.