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| Oil lingers below $77 amid US demand concerns |
| AP/PTI / Singapore Nov 13, 2009, 11:00 IST |
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Oil prices lingered below $77 a barrel today in Asia amid investor doubts about US crude demand.
Benchmark crude for December delivery, which earlier fell to as low as $76, was down 15 cents to $76.79 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gave up $2.34 to settle at $76.94 yesterday.
The US Energy Information Administration said yesterday in its weekly report that oil inventories rose 1.8 million barrels and gasoline stocks grew 2.5 million, both larger-than-expected increases.
Oil has bobbed between $76 and $82 for the last month as traders mull how much a high US unemployment rate, which rose to 10.2 per cent in October, will drag on consumer demand for crude products such as gasoline.
"I don't think demand will pick up until the economy starts creating jobs," said Clarence Chu, a trader at market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore.
Last month, crude broke through a $65- $75 range that it had been in for most of the summer on signs the economy was recovering. Some analysts expect crude to stay above that range going into 2010.
"The immediate floor to prices has been moving up, beyond $70 per barrel and perhaps as high as $75 per barrel," Barclays Capital said in a report. "Market dynamics have returned to being a fairly relaxed chess game."
A senior NDMC official said, "Traffic around Connaught Place runs bumper to bumper and if commercial activities at the station were to be allowed it could have led to an uncontrollable situation in the area."
As such the station is handling over seven lakh people and 700 trains every day, stretching the infrastructure in and around the station complex to its limit, said the official.
RITES, a railway PSU, had also conducted a survey on the traffic situation at Connaught Place and possible impact on it after the the transformation.
A senior railway official said unless the master plan gets clearnace no bidders will show interest in the project.
Railways had invited RFQ for the project last year which was cancelled due to the cross holdings of shares by the bidders.
The project attracted many national and foreign firms such as Larsen and Toubro, DLF, Emaar-MGF, Reliance Infrastructure, Maytas Infra, Indiabulls Real Estate, GVK, Mitsui, Leighton, China Railways 18th Bureau Group and Deutsche Bahn.
This time also about seven players had shown interest in the RFQ. But now they have also developed cold feet, an official said.
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