ABC News reported today the price of oil dropped further to below $102 per barrel on Wednesday while traders awaited the weekly data expected to show rising U.S. crude stockpiles.
U.S. crude for May delivery went down 22 cents to $101.53 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange; and on Tuesday, the Nymex contract dropped $1.90 to settle at $101.75, in Europe by early afternoon.
Brent crude went up 3 cents to $109.30, an international benchmark for oil, on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
It was reported late Tuesday U.S. stockpiles of crude rose 519,000 barrels last week, according to the American Petroleum industry. This was below the increase of 3.1 million barrels which was originally expected by the analysts polled by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., coming after a 10 million barrels jump that was registered the previous week.
The market benchmark, a report from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration, is expected to be out late Wednesday.
“The exceptional high stock levels in the U.S., along with the expected increase in the domestic output as the winter months close and are behind us, appear to have decisively started taking toll on” the Nymex contract, according to analysts at JBC Energy in Vienna.
This lends some support to prices in areas with continued tensions in Ukraine, where the acting president has ordered the security forces to resume operations in the country’s east against pro-Russian insurgents who are demanding closer ties with Russia, and Libya’s inability to normalize its oil exports.
“In an agreement three weeks ago between the government and rebels in Libya appears to be hanging in the balance, “according to Analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt who said in a note to clients, “It had envisaged a gradual opening of the oil terminals occupied by the rebels.”
In other energy futures trading in New York;
(1) Wholesale gasoline, down 0.02 cent at $3.0448 a gallon.
(2) Heating oil dropped 0.04 cent to $2.9951 a gallon.
(3) Natural gas added 3.4 cents to $4.773 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based on an ABC News report (Provided by Associated Press)
Source:
ABC News.Com (Provided by Associated Press)