Oil Flat as Investors Eye Mideast, GDP

LONDON-oil futures were little changed Friday, trading above $ 105 a barrel, as investors digested an upward revision to U.S. growth and care remianed and political instability in the Middle East.
Crude oil for May delivery gained one cent to $ 105.61 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Futures showed little reaction to data showing that U.S. data -real gross domestic product for the fourth quarter was revised to an annual increase of 3.1% from a previous estimate of a 2.8% increase.
The May crude contract closed 15 cents to $ 105.60 a barrel in New York on Thursday.
"Continued fighting in Libya and protests in other Arab countries have given more support to oil prices, although the additional pulses currently without any increase in prices," Commerzbank said in a note.
Edward Meir, commodities analyst at MF Global, said recently, "[investors have been] the highest bid price, mainly in the back of the holders of geopolitics."
He noted that expectations of Japanese oil demand will recover after a recent earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country are also giving some support to oil prices. But he warned that Japan's oil imports are likely operating at far less than they were before the earthquake of 4.2 million barrels per day and the data suggest an extra 0.7 million to 1.2 million tonnes of extra oil on the market right now.
However, if the market starts to discount a longer time than expected to get new energy facilities in place that "should temper expectations that demand for Japanese products were subjected to a strong snap back," said Meir .

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704474804576222404167713410.html)