OIL FUTURES: Crude Trims Losses As US Denies Oil Storage Release
March 15 2012 - 12:53PM
Dow Jones News
Crude oil futures trimmed losses near midday after a U.S.
official called inaccurate a report that the U.S. would soon
release oil from its emergency stockpile.
Prices earlier fell sharply after a report that 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 their 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 52 cents lower at
$104.91 a barrel after the U.S. official's comment. It had swung
from a 50 cent gain to a loss of about $1 on the initial report.
Crude traded down to the lowest intraday level since Feb. 17, at
$103.78 and earlier hit a high of $106.18 a barrel.
April Brent crude was $1.45 lower at $123.52 a barrel, after
moving in a range of $120.97 to $125.35 a barrel.
-By David Bird, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2141;
david.bird@dowjones.com