Crude oil prices held steady at just over US$60 a barrel in Asian trading Thursday after OPEC's president said the group will keep output unchanged and figures showed a sharp rise in U.S. oil stocks last week. Light, sweet crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 3 cents to US$60.05 a barrel in electronic trading. The contract on Wednesday fell US$1.56 to settle at US$60.02 a barrel. The Nymex crude contract has fallen more than US$3 since Friday's settlement price of US$63.67. April Brent crude futures on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 8 cents to US$60.11 a barrel. Gasoline rose marginally to US$1.6505 a gallon (3.8 liters) while heating oil gained 0.58 cent to US$1.6999 a gallon. Natural gas gained 1.2 cents to US$6.660 per 1,000 cubic feet, the Associated Press reported. Edmund Daukoru, Nigeria's oil minister and president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said Wednesday output would remain unchanged but that the cartel would monitor it closely between now and its next meeting in Venezuela on June 1. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said U.S. crude stocks rose by 6.8 million barrels in the week ending March 3 to 335.1 million barrels _ the highest level since 1999.
