By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Benchmark Nymex crude-oil futures crept higher in electronic trading Friday, on track to achieve their fourth consecutive gain this week.
Crude for September delivery CL1U +0.46% , added 32 cents, or 0.3%, to $99.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.
Oil prices are trading above levels not seen since mid-June. Prices have found support as progress in the euro-zone debt crisis improved the global economic outlook and, therefore, the demand for energy. Read more on European debt developments.
Crude has also benefited this week from a decision from the International Energy Association (IEA) not to release any further stockpiles for the time being.
“While we suspect that neither sovereign debt nor the IEA have disappeared as significant factors for the quarter as a whole, some of the immediate dampening force on prices has lessened,” analysts at Barclays Capital said.
Over the coming quarter, the analysts forecast further risk “from events in Libya, Saudi Arabian oil policy and concerns about demand dynamics.”
“There is then potential for a breakthrough in the current Libyan stalemate to create a short-term downwash in oil prices, but we would not expect that move to stick for long,” the analysts said.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
