MELBOURNE: Oil traded near the lowest price in more than three months as US crude stockpiles climbed to the highest level since 1990 and Europe’s debt crisis worsened.
Futures were little changed after falling for a sixth day yesterday. Crude inventories increased last week by 3.7 million barrels to 379.5 million even as fuel stockpiles declined, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a gain of 2 million. Greece struggled to form a government and the cost of insuring against a Spanish debt default climbed to a record.
Crude for June delivery was at US$96.77 a barrel, down 4 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:01 p.m. Sydney time. The contract yesterday slid 20 cents to US$96.81, the lowest close since Feb 2. Prices are down 2.1% this year.
Brent oil for June settlement was at US$113.19 a barrel, down 1 cent, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at US$16.42, compared with US$16.39 yesterday.
Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI, rose 1.16 million barrels to a record 44.1 million, according to the EIA report.
Fuel inventories fell and refineries operated at 86.4% of capacity, the highest level since the week ended Dec 2. Gasoline supplies slid 2.61 million barrels, more than three times the 750,000-barrel decrease forecast. Stockpiles of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, dropped 3.25 million barrels.
Oil has fallen this week on signs Europe’s debt crisis is worsening, threatening economic growth. China Investment Corp, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, has stopped buying European government debt because of the crisis there, CIC President Gao Xiqing said yesterday in an interview in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The European Union accounted for 16% of the world’s oil consumption in 2010, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy. (Bloomberg/T06)
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