Oil Futures Drop On Report UK Expects US To Release Oil Reserves
March 15 2012 - 12:26PM
Dow Jones News
Crude oil futures prices were trading lower Thursday after a
report the U.K expects the U.S. to move soon to open its emergency
oil reserves in the face of rising prices.
Reuters quoted U.K. sources saying they expected the request
soon and said the U.K. would cooperate with the move.
The U.S. was the lynchpin of a move by the International Energy
Agency in June 2011 to release 60 million barrels of crude oil from
its Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid concerns over a supply
shortage caused by the Libyan civil war. The U.S. provided half of
the emergency oil released.
Rising prices amid worries about a potential cutoff in Iranian
oil supplies, as western sanctions tighten, has stirred market
chatter than a similar release may be forthcoming. North Sea Brent
crude oil prices have recently traded to near their highest levels
since 2008 and gasoline prices in the U.S. have climbed and are
widely expected to top $4 a gallon nationwide for the first time
since summer 2008.
Nymex April light, sweet crude oil was trading about 50 cents
higher before the headline and was recently down $1 at $104.43 a
barrel. It moved in a range of $103.78 to $106.18 a barrel.
April Brent crude was $123.00 a barrel, down $1.97 a barrel,
after trading in a range of $120.97 to $125.35 a barrel.
-By David Bird, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2141;
david.bird@dowjones.com