SINGAPORE: Oil was up in Asia Wednesday, as traders cheered a last-minute deal pieced together by US politicians to avoid the fiscal cliff, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, added 19 cents to $92.01 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for February delivery gained 42 cents to $111.53.
Markets "took heart from a cobbled-together deal" that came late on Monday after lengthy discussions between the Democrats and Republicans, a report from IG Markets said.
The deal to avert the fiscal cliff raises taxes only on households earning $450,000 a year and exempts everyone else.
It will delay $109 billion in automatic spending cuts -- known as the sequester -- for two months, setting up another bitter political cliffhanger at the end of February.
The bill has already passed through the Democrat-majority US Senate and is expected to pass through the Republican-led House of Representatives with little difficulty later Wednesday.
Republicans had earlier voiced discontent with the bill and threatened to torpedo the legislation by adding new amendments, although it appeared later in the day that they lacked the support to do so.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2013
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