Dollar fall pushes up oil prices

US: The dollar's continuous devaluation pushed up oil prices again, which exceeded $69 a barrel, after two days of regression.

The US light crude oil to be delivered in July rose $0.85, at $68.94 a barrel, after having reached a $69.37 ceiling. London's Brent crude oil rose $0.94, at $68.82 a barrel, while the prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) increased to $67.02.

In Asia, oil prices also rose on Tuesday in the electronic operations, pushed by the hope of an economic recovery, according to stockbrokers.

Hydrocarbon international market analysts asserted that the foreign exchange market has been influencing the increase in oil prices since May, thus operators are looking more to the US dollar than to the raw material market.

The oil prices have doubled their value, from the lowest reached in the winter season, in line with the raw material and foreign exchange markets.

The US dollar fell against the basket of currencies, from a ceiling reached in two weeks, after US labor data was published and increased expectancy in a rate increase of the Federal Reserve rates during the current year.

They also asserted that the hope of a global economic recovery sustains the current price rise.

For this purpose, the International Energy Agency expects that the oil reserves in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which gathers the most industrialized countries with market economies, will decrease from 63 to 57 days by the end of 2009.

New York, Prensa Latina