SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures extended their losses Friday, looking at a sixth consecutive day of declines as investors remain concerned about global growth and demand for oil as the euro zone’s debt problems rage on.
Investors also parsed out news the start of a U.S. pipeline reversal, seen as instrumental in alleviating the glut in oil hub Cushing, Okla., is to start this weekend.
Crude for June delivery CLM2 -0.26% retreated 66 cents, or 0.7%, to $91.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“In Europe, fears over Greece’s future in the euro area and the potential contagion to other debt-stricken Member States continue to dominate the market,” analysts at JBC Energy wrote in a note to clients.
“On the other side of the Atlantic, expectations that the Seaway pipeline reversal will help ease the surplus at Cushing have likely contributed to keeping the drop in US crude prices limited,” they added.
Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge completed the technical aspects of the reversal, and the companies are expected to start shipping oil to the Gulf Coast from Cushing this weekend.
Inventories at Cushing are at a two-decade high.
The Seaway pipeline is expected to carry 150,000 barrels a day from Cushing to the Gulf Coast and should contribute to a narrowing of the spread between the New York-traded and Brent prices, the JBC analysts said.
The companies have said they will expand capacity to 400,000 barrels a day by early 2013.
Other energy futures were mixed, with gasoline and natural gas posting gains and heating oil tracking oil lower.
Gasoline for June delivery RBM2 +0.53% added 1 cent, or 0.4%, to $2.89 a gallon. Heating oil for the same month HOM2 +0.06% retreated less than 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.84 a gallon.
June natural gas NGM12 +3.59% advanced 9 cents, or 3.3%, to $2.68 per million British thermal units. The product ended Thursday up 0.9%, buoyed by a lower-than-expected increase in weekly inventories.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
