West Texas Intermediate rose for the first time in four days after a government report showed U.S. crude inventories shrank and as Iraqi forces battled insurgents north of Baghdad. Brent was steady in London.
Futures advanced as much as 0.4 percent in New York. Crude stockpiles fell by 579,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday. Islamist militants battled Iraq’s military for control of the Baiji oil refinery, the country’s biggest, as President Barack Obama told top U.S. lawmakers that he won’t need additional congressional approval for the options he’s considering in response to the crisis.
“The crude market is telling us the importance of Iraq,” said Jonathan Barratt, the chief investment officer at Ayers Alliance Securities in Sydney who predicts investors may sell West Texas contracts if prices climb to $107.50 a barrel. “The concerns are smoldering and that keeps oil up. The EIA numbers are in line with what you’d expect this time of year.”
WTI for July delivery, which expires tomorrow, gained as much as 46 cents to $106.43 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $106.42 at 11:17 a.m. Singapore time. It dropped 39 cents to $105.97 yesterday, the lowest close since June 11. The more-active August contract was up 45 cents at $106.04. The volume of all futures traded was about 16 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have increased 8.1 percent this year.
Brent for August settlement was 22 cents higher at $114.48 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $8.46 to WTI for the same month. The spread widened for a third day yesterday to close at $8.67.
Source: Bloomberg
Source: Bloomberg
