Gaddafi forces pulled back but will oil? Oil prices are following through on upside as the allied no fly zone is being touted as an early success. The AFP reported that, "Libyan government forces had pulled back 100 kilometers from the rebel-held city of Benghazi Monday after international airstrikes destroyed much of their armor."
Oil price are not impressed as fears that the situation in North Africa and the Middle East continues to be unstable. Still the head of the Arab league, after calling for the no fly zone, is now wondering why some civilians are getting killed. Egypt's state news agency as reported by Reuters quoted Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa as saying, "What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians."
Other Arab countries are in an uproar and some of the members of the league have to be asking themselves whether they will be next. The latest Arab country with an uprising was Syria where 7 people were killed in a protest to oust the government. This follows a deadly protest in Yemen on Friday. This all comes against a backdrop of Japan nuclear problems.
There seemed to be significant progress before word of a pull back. Thick smoke is coming out of one of the reactors and Japanese authorities are telling workers to evacuate the area. Nuclear uncertainty has given rise to natural gas. The gas market has gained in part due to Japan, but also ahead of the slew of hurricane forecasts that are bound to come out. Oil looks to target 108 to 110. Oil prices may fall hard if the situation with the Japan reactor takes another turn for the worse.
Phil Flynn is senior energy analyst for PFGBest Research and a Fox Business Network contributor. He can be reached at (800) 935-6487 or at pflynn@pfgbest.com.
