By Fayen Wong
SYDNEY, March 10 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Monday, bolstered
by a bout of cold weather in the United States, but prices
stayed below the record high of above $106 struck in the
previous session.
U.S. light crude for April delivery <CLc1>, which rose as
much as 45 cents, was up 26 cents at $105.41 a barrel by 2332
GMT.
"The cold snap in the United States over the weekend and
the closure of one of the Mexican ports were supportive of oil
prices," said David Moore, a resource analyst at the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
A late-season winter storm slammed into the Ohio Valley on
Saturday, with freezing rain, ice and sleet forcing flight
delays and cancellations at airports and forecasters predicting
the storm to head towards the U.S. Northeast [].
Snow totals from Ohio to western New York could exceed 15
to 20 inches (38-51 cm) by Sunday, the national Weather Service
said.
A three-day closure of one of Mexico's three main crude oil
ports, Dos Bocas, also underpinned oil's gains. Although Dos
Bocas port has reopened on Monday [], analysts
said expectations of more wild weather in the Gulf of Mexico in
the coming days were lending support to prices.
Mexico, the world's No. 9 exporter of crude oil and a top
three supplier to the United States, has seen its crude exports
repeatedly disrupted in recent months by bad weather and storms
in the Gulf, often resulting in its crude shipments being
halted for days at a time.
Oil's surge to a lifetime high of $106.54 a barrel on
Friday was helped by a combination of a record low U.S.
dollar, a sharp drop in U.S. crude stocks and OPEC's decision
not to increase output.
But a rebound in the dollar in late trading on Friday
helped to ease oil off earlier highs.
Easing tensions between OPEC member Venezuela, a top oil
exporter to the United States, and neighbour Colombia, also
kept oil price gains in check.
The presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela ended a
border dispute on Friday, after a week of regional diplomacy in
the face of hostile rhetoric and troop build-ups.
[]
Still, some analysts say expectations of more dollar
weakness, continued tensions in Nigeria and the Middle East as
well as increased speculative funds pouring into commodities
could keep pushing oil prices to new highs.
NYMEX crude has set an intraday record 12 times since Jan.
2, when prices first hit $100. Settlements above $100 have been
reached in nine of the last 14 sessions, the latest being
Friday's $105.15.
Crude speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange hiked
net long positions last week, according to data from the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission released Friday.
Net crude long positions rose to 99,539 in the week to
March 4, up from 91,625 in the week March 4.
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
