BEIJING, March 9 -- Oil prices pulled back after briefly surpassing 62 U.S. dollars a barrel Thursday, as traders regarded forecasts of warm US weather as an opportunity to take some profits.

    Crude futures had risen more than a one dollar a barrel a day earlier, after the US government reported drops in crude, gasoline and distillate stockpiles, The Associated Press reported.

    But with the National Weather Service predicting warmer-than-normal weather over the next two weeks in most areas of the United States, including the heating oil-consuming Northeast, traders saw little reason to push crude out of its recent narrow range.

    "We would call oil fairly priced between 60 dollars and 62 dollars," said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida, noting that crude hit some resistance above 62 dollars a barrel yesterday, which sparked some profit-taking. "We're getting speculative buying and speculative selling."

    Gasoline futures, however, continued on their upward climb; they have spiked more than 20 percent over the past month due to US refinery problems, falling inventories and strong demand ahead of the spring driving season. By contrast, crude has risen less than 3 percent over the past month.

    Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell 18 cents to settle at 61.64 dollars a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after rising as high as 62.30 dollars in early trading.

    Brent crude for April delivery fell 17 cents to settle at 62.33 dollars a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange. On Nymex, heating oil futures fell 0.61 cent to settle at 1.7613 dollars a gallon, and natural gas prices fell 12.7 cents to settle at 7.239 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.

    The US Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that US natural gas storage fell by 102 billion cubic feet to 1.63 trillion cubic feet last week -- around what most analysts were expecting.

    Keeping energy prices from falling very much, though, was gasoline, which rose 3.06 cents to settle at 1.9261 dollars a gallon.

    Though many analysts are expecting oil prices to advance further as US gasoline demand picks up during the warmer months, crude could see a dip before that happens, as March is a seasonally slow month.

    "We're going into a period of time where we've got a valley as far as demand goes. The March-April time frame is not quite driving season yet; we could have a little weakness based on smaller demand," Cordier said.

    On Wednesday, the EIA reported that crude oil stockpiles dropped by 4.8 million barrels last week to 324.2 million barrels. US motor gasoline inventories and distillate fuel inventories also fell.

    "While oil supplies plunged 4.85 million barrels and gasoline dropped 3.75 million barrels, both are still well above their five-year averages," said Jim Rintoul of TheOiltrader.com. "Continued OPEC cuts notwithstanding, oil stocks are likely to move higher after the heating season comes to an end, keeping prices subdued."

    The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be meeting in Vienna next week.

    Markets are also watching developments in the Middle East over Iran's over failure to comply with demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. Washington is pushing for tougher UN sanctions on Tehran and introducing legislation to punish foreign oil companies that invest in Iran's energy industry.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)