Oil Tops $105 Per Barrel - Oil rising again while gasoline prices flat

Demand for oil and gas should rise as the U.S. and global economies continue to recover. China shows little sign of reducing its thirst for petroleum. Platts reports that China's oil demand in February rose 10.1 percent from a year ago, to the second strongest level on record. It hit an all-time high in December. China is the world's second biggest oil consumer behind the U.S.

Meanwhile, Japan continues to stabilize the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex that was damaged and leaking radiation following this month's earthquake and tsunami. The government will release more than 56 million barrels of oil from the country's reserves — enough to cover 22 days of demand, analyst Addison Armstrong said. Japan previously released three days' supply of oil from its reserves.

Bank of America analyst Sabine Schels said Japan will rely on other power generators that run on liquefied natural gas and oil to make up for the loss of its nuclear facilities.

Schels estimated that Japan will increase imports of liquefied natural gas by 706 million to 848 million cubic feet per day to partially replace power lost from damaged nuclear reactors. Royal Dutch Shell is among oil companies shipping more crude and LNG to Japan to help offset power shortages.

Japan's increased imports are expected to push world natural gas prices higher, though large global supplies should prevent them from spiking above $13 per 1,000 cubic feet as they did in 2008. Schels expects natural gas prices to average around $4.48 per 1,000 cubic feet this year. Natural gas for April delivery gained 9.3 cents to settle at $4.254 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil added 2.37 cents to settle at $3.0762 per gallon and gasoline gained almost a penny to settle at $3.0045 per gallon.

The April contract for West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $1.67 to settle at $104 per barrel on its final day of trading.