Commodities for Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1986 : Energy Futures Prices Firm

Energy futures prices took on a generally firm tone on Tuesday, with traders showing a reluctance to sell amid signs, however weak, that worldwide overproduction could come under better control.

Heating oil showed the greatest strength, advancing as much as 1.20 cents a gallon for March contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On some other markets, hog futures advanced the 1 1/2 cents-a-pound daily limit and coffee gained the 4 cents-a-pound limit.

Traders at the Mercantile Exchange “are apprehensive about selling because they’re still a bit shell shocked” from the surprise agreement on temporary quotas that came out of the meeting in August of the Organization of Petrolem Exporting Countries, said Richard Marose, an analyst in Chicago with Geldermann Inc.

OPEC was in its second day of meetings in Geneva on Tuesday in an effort to work out either an extention or replacement to the production agreement, which expires at the end of this month.

The oil minister for the United Arab Emirates, which has been producing above its quota, said his country will live by the accord for the remainder of October.