Oil prices ease in Asia

Oil prices eased in Asian trade today following a report that the International Monetary Fund will further lower its world economic growth forecast.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for March delivery, fell 75 cents to $45.72 a barrel in afternoon trade.

Brent North Sea crude for March fell 78 cents to 47.59.

"There was some bearish news over the weekend," said Ken Hasegawa, manager of the energy desk at Newedge Japan brokerage in Tokyo.

He was referring to a report in which an IMF official said the organisation would cut its global growth forecast for this year.

The IMF in November forecast that advanced economies would contract this year for the first time since World War II and lowered its global growth forecast by 0.8 points to 2.2 per cent.

Prices had rallied on Friday ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, in what Hasegawa called a technical surge.

Other analysts said Friday's price rise of almost $3 reflected expectations that crude stockpiles will ease as Opec members adhere strictly to production cutbacks.

A deepening global economic slowdown has slashed energy demand and pulled prices far below record highs above $147 a barrel reached last July.

Hasegawa said that, in the absence of news to trigger a bullish run in the market, oil would trade between $40 and $50.

Unless prices rise to $100 a barrel, Libya could nationalise foreign oil firms, the country's leader Moamer Kadhafi said in a Saturday report by the state news agency JANA.