Oil headed for a fourth week of gains in New York as signs Europe and the U.S. will contain their debt crises eased speculation that demand for raw materials may falter. Futures climbed for a fourth day after euro-area leaders announced 159 billion euros ($229 billion) in new aid for Greece late yesterday. Prices also rose amid speculation U.S. President Barack Obama may agree a deal to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling before an Aug. 2 deadline. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, will boost supply this month, the International Energy Agency predicted yesterday. Crude for September delivery increased as much as 70 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $99.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $99.40 at 10:47 a.m. London time. Brent for September settlement rose 58 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $118.09 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. “The market has been boosted by Greek bail-out euphoria, but even that was insufficient to move Brent above $120,” said Christopher Bellew, senior broker at Jefferies Bache Ltd. in London. “Slight production increases by the Saudis, added to continuing worries about demand, have prevented prices running away to the upside.” The European benchmark contract traded at a premium of $18.66 a barrel to U.S. futures, compared with a record close of $22.63 on July 14. Greek Aid European leaders empowered their 440 billion-euro rescue fund to buy debt across stressed nations, helping to erect a firewall around Spain and Italy even as they risked temporary default to lighten the Greek debt burden. “There’s more relief over debt measures so there’s this feel-good sense to the equity markets and that’s dragging up the price of oil,” said Jonathan Barratt, a managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, who predicts oil in New York will average $100 a barrel this year. A resolution in the U.S. “will add to this optimism, which should push crude oil through $100 a barrel, even up to $102,” he said. U.S. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have pressed for a broad agreement to boost the U.S. debt limit while cutting spending by trillions of dollars and overhauling the tax code. IEA Supplies Crude in New York settled yesterday at its highest since June 14 after the IEA said it won’t extend a release of emergency oil supplies. The organization said that while it’s prepared to “augment” the sale of 60 million barrels of emergency oil stockpiles first announced on June 23, this intervention and higher output from OPEC will for now “substantially cover” the loss of exports caused by an armed conflict in Libya. The Libyan revolt, which began in February, has reduced the availability of light, sweet crude, or oil with low density and sulfur content. The country’s output fell 50,000 barrels, or 25 percent, to 150,000 barrels a day last month, a Bloomberg News survey showed, the lowest amount in yearly data since 1962. It pumped 1.59 million barrels in January, before the uprising. The IEA’s action was the third time the agency has coordinated the use of emergency stockpiles since it was founded in 1974. The first was during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the second in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf of Mexico. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net

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