By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude oil futures fell below $99 a barrel Thursday, pressured by the unexpected jump in last week’s supplies reported by the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday, as traders awaited a more closely watched government report on stocks due out shortly.
Crude for February delivery CL2G -0.48% shed 39 cents, or 0.4%, to trade at $98.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell nearly 2% on Wednesday after posting a six-session climb of more than 8%.
Year to date, crude oil futures still trade about 8% higher. Read about oil’s potential 2012 balancing act.
“The market is on a razor’s edge,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, editor in chief for the Kilduff Report. The “API issued a bit of a surprise last night .... Final assessment will come later this morning with EIA’s report.”
Crude-oil supplies climbed by 9.6 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 23, the API said. Gasoline inventories also rose by 1.9 million barrels, while distillate inventories added 554,000 barrels, the trade group said.
But analysts polled by Platts expected data to show that crude-oil stocks fell by 2.3 million barrels. They also forecasted a fall of 500,000 barrels in gasoline supplies and a decline of 1.2 million barrels in distillate inventories.
The API’s figures came ahead of a more closely-watched Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, due out at 11 a.m. Eastern. Both reports were delayed due to the Christmas holiday.
Meanwhile, oil traders continued to watch developments related to tension between Iran and the West. Iran had threatened to disrupt shipments through the Strait of Hormuz — a key shipping route for oil tankers. On Wednesday, however, the U.S. military reportedly said it will not allow Iran to disrupt oil transports through the shipping channel. Read about the outlook for the oil markets and Iran in 2012.
On Nymex Thursday, January heating oil HO2F +0.27% traded 1 cent, or 0.3%, higher at $2.90 a gallon and January gasoline RB2F -0.38% was at $2.64 a gallon, down 1 cent, or 0.3%.
The EIA is also expected to report Thursday, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern, on last week’s natural gas supplies in storage. Analysts polled by Platts expect the data to show a decline of 85 billion to 89 billion cubic feet in natural gas stocks.
On its first full day as a front month contract, February natural gas NG12G -0.35% fell fractionally, or 0.2%, to $3.12 per million British thermal units.
Myra Saefong is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco.
