Brent oil futures open today’s trading session back near $108 a barrel as commodity prices slip on a stronger US dollar, although it’s expected that demand will remain strong as traders pointed to the tight underlying physical markets.<\/p>\n
Latest Brent Oil Price<\/strong><\/p>\n In London, Brent crude oil futures for December 2011 delivery was trading at $108.45 a barrel, 07.10 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. The contract closed Monday’s session at $109.25 a barrel, or 0.6 percent lower.<\/p>\n Oil Demand and Prices<\/strong><\/p>\n The demand for oil and higher prices pointed to wider margins for refiners, suggesting that demand for crude oil would remain strong.<\/p>\n “Margins in the last two weeks have gone up by $3 to $4 in Europe.” said James Zhang, an oil analyst at Standard Bank.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kuwait\u2019s Oil Minister Mohammad al-Baseeri said on Monday that world demand for crude oil is forecast to remain high and put pressure on supply even after Libya returns to pre-crisis production.<\/p>\n “Libya\u2019s return to full production is still very slow and is expected to take time to reach pre-crisis production. But regardless of whether Libya\u2019s production returns or not, the world market will continue to need more oil, increasing the burden on main OPEC producers.” Baseeri told reporters on the sidelines of the Kuwait Financial Forum.<\/p>\n Europe’s Debt Rescue Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, traders and investors are looking ahead to the Franco-German meeting on Tuesday, where politicians from the two sides were expected to further discuss the European debt rescue plan broadly agreed upon last week, dealers said.<\/p>\n “This meeting could be a key issue.” said Phillip Futures commodity analyst Ker Chung Yang, who added that traders were also eyeing a US Fed meeting and the US jobs report both due later in the week.<\/p>\n