Oil and gas stocks hold tight as crude gains
Oil and gas stocks moved in and out of positive territory in early trading on Wednesday as crude oil prices gained ground ahead of a government update on petroleum inventories due later in the morning. Crude for May delivery was up 25 cents, or 0.5%, to $49.66 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Natural gas futures fell 2 cents to stand at $3.67 per million British thermal units.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a monthly report that it expects oil demand to drop 1.4 million barrels a day in 2009, a downward revision of 400,000 barrels from a month ago.
On the news front, natural gas producer BG Group said Wednesday that the presence of another accumulation of light oil has been proven in the 4-BRSA-709 well offshore Brazil, known as Iguacu.