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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Oil prices remain above $90 per barrel as budget impasse in Washington continues

By: Pamela Sampson, The Associated Press

Monday, Mar. 4, 2013 at 11:54 PM | Comments: 0

An oil rig looms off Huntington Beach on Aug. 4, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Grant Hindsley

BANGKOK - The price of oil rose slightly on Tuesday, a day after dropping below $90 a barrel for the first time this year.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 22 cents to US$90.34 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday, the price fell as low as $89.33 per barrel before finishing on the Nymex at $90.12.

Monday's drop was attributed to the introduction in the U.S. of $85 billion in automatic government spending cuts, which could hurt the world's leading economy.

The spending cuts kicked in on Friday after President Barack Obama and Congress failed to meet a deadline for striking a deal to avert or soften the reductions. Negotiations on Sunday ended in a bitter impasse.

The oil market will be watching for signs that a deal to claw back the cuts might be in the works.

Brent crude, used to price many kinds of oil imported by U.S. refineries, rose 40 cents to $110.49 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.7 cent to $3.092 a gallon.

— Heating oil rose 0.9 cent to $2.928 a gallon.

— Natural gas gained 1.9 cents to $3.548 per 1,000 cubic feet.

(TSX:ECA, TSX:IMO, TSX:SU, TSX:HSE, NYSE:BP, NYSE:COP, NYSE:XOM, NYSE:CVX, TSX:CNQ, TSX:TLM, TSX:COS.UN, TSX:CVE)

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