SINGAPORE - Oil prices hovered near 80 dollars in Asia trade Friday as traders fretted over the weak fundamentals of the market, analysts said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was up 48 cents to 80.10 dollars a barrel in the afternoon.
Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 62 cents to 78.61 dollars.
Analysts said data from the US Department of Energy released late Wednesday showing a four-million barrel drop in US stockpiles for the week ending October 30 was not enough to buoy the market.
“Once again, the demand side of the EIA numbers was extremely weak,” said Edward Meir, a senior commodity analyst with MF Global.
Prices were rangebound between 77 and 81 dollars throughout the week as traders were “looking for a breakout but economic data is still mixed,” said Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics.
On Thursday, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank held their key lending rates at record-low levels, matching the US Federal Reserve’s historic low key federal funds rate of zero to 0.25 percent.
“The Fed is not pointing at any strong demand recovery and the US oil statistics are saying the same thing,” said Petromatrix oil market analyst Olivier Jakob.
