Oil futures are higher Wednesday in Asian hours, extending strong overnight gains on news that the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline would begin carrying crude oil to Texas refineries next month, which may help reduce domestic stockpiles. “It’s only influencing WTI (West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark on the New York Mercantile Exchange) because the news came very late in overnight trade,” said Newedge Japan Inc. commodity analyst Masaki Suematsu. On the Nymex, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $97.20 a barrel at 0555 GMT, up $1.16 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.24 to $112.86 a barrel. This came after Nymex January crude settled up $2.22, or 2.4%, at $96.04 a barrel overnight, the highest settlement price since Oct. 31. Mr. Suematsu said Nymex crude is likely to extend gains on the […]