Oil trims gains on weak U.S. growth

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) � Oil futures trimmed a modest gain Thursday after the Commerce Department revised up its estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product by less than economists had forecast.

Crude oil for April delivery CLJ3 �rose 15 cents at $92.91 a barrel. The move added to a 13-cent gain during Wednesday�s regular New York Mercantile Exchange trade. Read: Oil logs minor gain on supply; stays below $93

Reuters A Repsol oil refinery in Cartagena, Spain.

London-traded Brent crude for April UK:LCOJ3 � � which had fallen 0.8% on ICE Futures Wednesday � rose 25 cents to $112.12 a barrel.

The Commerce Department said the U.S. economy grew at a 0.1% annualized pace in the fourth quarter, compared with an earlier estimate of a 0.1% decline. Economists had expected the revision to show GDP expanded by 0.5%.See: Economy grew, just barely, in fourth quarter.

Helping support gains for crude, the U.S. dollar eased further from its gains on the back of somewhat dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Thursday�s modest gains for oil in Asia came against the background of a sharp stock-market rally, which saw Japan�s Nikkei Average JP:100000018 �shoot 2.7% higher. Likewise, Wednesday�s bump up in Nymex crude occurred as the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA �rallied to near all-time highs.

U.S. stocks advanced in early going on Wall Street.

Citi Futures analysts suggested oil and stocks may be decoupling after a period of tandem movement.

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�It looks as though the correlation trade with the equity market is breaking down, highlighting that each market really does have its own fundamentals, and that the ones for crude oil might well be bearish,� they wrote late Wednesday.

Citi Futures is short crude � both Nymex and Brent � citing the current supply-and-demand dynamics.

�As the headlines on the revised U.S. data for 2012 pointed out, U.S. petroleum demand was the lowest in 16 years, and U.S. crude-oil production was the highest in 17 years, not exactly bull-market statistics,� they said.

Meanwhile, April natural gas NGJ13 �improved by 2 cents, or 0.6%, to trade at $3.46 per million British thermal units, though still below Wednesday�s session high of $3.55.