Oil prices stood below $55 today after a 2 per cent fall the previous day.
US light crude for March delivery was up 25 cents at $54.48 a barrel earlier, after a $1.14 slide yesterday, on concerns that the recent frosty weather in the United States would not last long enough to bring distillates inventories down.
The drop came after a $2.79 gain over the past two days. Prices earlier reached $55.90 yesterday, the highest level since $56.20 touched on January 9th.
London Brent crude was up 23 cents at $54.35.
Oil prices are down about 13 per cent since the start of January, despite Opec's pledges to cut supplies.
The market yesterday shrugged off a bullish draw in US natural gas stocks, sending the February contract down 7 per cent on profit-taking and as some private weather forecasts pointed to milder temperatures at the back end of the 15-day outlook.