GAZA STRIP !!!

Crude oil rose for a second day in New York after Israeli air strikes in the Gaza strip raised concerns that supply may be disrupted from the Middle East, the world’s largest producing region ... Pure SPECULATION, Arabs and Israelies have been at War for hundreds of years. so who cares!!! why should this affect crude prices ... this is just to stage a bit of a recovery in the crude market . Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel is fighting a “war to the death” with Hamas, the group that controls Gaza. Prices also advanced as China, the world’s second-biggest energy consumer, said it will supplement its emergency oil stockpiles while prices are low, while Libya and the United Arab Emirates announced compliance with OPEC output cuts agreed on this month. Hamas, the militant Islamist group that seized control of Gaza last year, is backed by Iran and considered a terrorist organization by the United States. Iran holds the world’s second-largest oil reserves and sits on the narrow sea channel through which oil from the Persian Gulf is shipped. >Futures prices fell 11 percent last week, reaching a four- year low of $32.40 on Dec. 19. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the United Arab Emirates state- owned producer, will reduce crude-oil exports in January and February after OPEC agreed to lower output as of Jan. 1. Libya is asking companies to cut by 270,000 barrels a day from that date, oil official Shokri Ghanem said in a telephone interview today. Crude oil for February delivery rose to $39.82 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $38.68 at 2:45 p.m. in Singapore. The number of February crude oil contracts traded was 4,945 compared with a daily average of 232,000 this year because most traders are on holidays. There is thin trading and markets can easily go up and down on low volumes . Oil jumped 6.7 percent to $37.71 on Dec. 26, the biggest gain in two weeks for a contract closest to expiration. Prices rose as OPEC member-states cut output to prevent a glut and Israel threatened to retaliate for a string of rocket attacks since a six-month truce with Hamas collapsed on Dec. 19.Brent crude oil for February settlement climbed to $39.30 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract gained 4.8 percent to $38.37 on Dec. 26. >However there is one nation in Europe that continues to practice inflated oil prices for consumers at the pump, that nation is Portugal...Petrol companies such as Galp,Repsol ,BP and the government have a monopoly