NYMEX-US crude holds above $106, Greece debt deal eyed

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FUNDAMENTALS

* On the New York Mercantile Exchange, April crude was unchanged at $106.58 a barrel at 0054 GMT, after rising 0.6 percent on Thursday.

* Sea-borne oil exports from OPEC, excluding Angola and Ecuador, will fall by 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the four weeks to March 24, a weekly forecast from UK consultancy Oil Movements showed.

* Around $100 is a "fair" price for a barrel of oil, encouraging investment while sustaining economic growth in consuming countries, the head of state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp told state news agency KUNA.

* Fuel oil inventories independently held at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub rose 26.1 percent to highs not seen since mid-October, according to data from independent Dutch oil analyst Pieter Kulsen.

* In Europe, Greece successfully closed its bond swap offer to private creditors on Thursday, opening the way to securing the funding it needs to avert a messy default on its debt, according to several senior officials.

* Six world powers demanded that Iran fulfill a promise to let international inspectors visit a military site where the United Nations believes that explosives tests geared to developing nuclear weapons may have taken place.

* Iran has not formally contacted the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency about any inspector access to the Parchin military site, IAEA head Yukiya Amano said.

MARKETS NEWS

* Asian shares rose on Friday, with Tokyo hitting a seven-month high, on signs Greece had successfully closed its bond swap offer for private creditors, although caution ahead of the release of U.S. employment data could check momentum.

* The euro and commodity currencies held on to overnight gains in Asia on Friday on Greece hopes.

DATA/EVENTS

* U.S. February nonfarm payrolls report due at 1330 GMT (Reporting by Rebekah Kebede in Perth and Robert Gibbons in New York; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

United Nations Energy

News source: Reuters

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