Oil climbed in New York as declining crude stockpiles in the U.S. countered concern that Europe’s worsening debt crisis will threaten the region’s economy. Futures gained as much as 0.5 percent, retracing some of yesterday’s 1.9 percent loss, which followed a German bond auction that fell short of expectations. U.S. crude inventories dropped last week to the lowest since January 2010, according to an Energy Department report yesterday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its oil-price forecast for the first quarter of 2012. “The decrease in inventory is going to be a supportive factor to keep crude oil from losing too much ground,� said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity-derivatives trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo. “One hundred dollars is not far from now, but I really doubt it will exceed the recent high of around $103.� Crude for January delivery rose as much as 50 cents to $96.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $96.63 at 1:25 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, the contract slid $1.84 to $96.17, the lowest settlement since Nov. 9. Prices are up 5.7 percent this year after rising 15 percent in 2010. Floor trading is closed today for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and electronic transactions will be booked with tomorrow’s trades for settlement purposes. Brent oil for January settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange increased as much as 67 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $107.69 a barrel. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $11.04 to New York-traded West Texas contracts. The spread reached a record $27.88 on Oct. 14. To contact the reporter on this story: Yee Kai Pin in Singapore at kyee13@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

Source