By Robert Daniel and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures extended their fall on Wednesday following data showing a gain in supplies.
Crude for November delivery CLX2 -0.77% lost 75 cents, or 0.8%, to $91.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The losses followed an American Petroleum Institute report late Tuesday saying crude-oil inventories rose 462,000 barrels in the week ended Sept. 28. The trade group also reported gasoline inventories fell 59,000 barrels, and supplies of distillates dropped 321,000 barrels.
The numbers came ahead of the more closely watched Energy Information Administration report due later Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect that report to show crude inventories up 1.5 million barrels, gasoline stocks unchanged, and distillate stockpiles down 400,000 barrels, for the week.
Uncertainty over when Spain may ask for European Union aid weighed on crude prices during Tuesday’s Nymex session, though a weaker U.S. dollar helped to temper broader losses. See: Tuesday's crude-oil trading session.
However, the dollar moved higher Wednesday. The dollar index DXY +0.15% , which measures the buck against a basket of six rival currencies, rose to 79.87 from 79.715 late Tuesday.
A higher dollar can discourage investment in dollar-denominated commodities such as oil, as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.
Iran was also back in investors’ minds Tuesday, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admitted for the first time that oil sales have declined due to Western sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to reports.
Still, strategists at Capital Economics wrote in a note that the shortfall due to sanctions on Iran “has been more than offset by increases in production elsewhere, in contrast to the disruption in Libya that led the International Energy Agency to coordinate an international stock release in 2011.”
“The leveling out in the cost of crude, which will be reflected soon in gasoline prices, should reduce the pressure for a unilateral release by the U.S. too,” they said.
Among other energy futures Wednesday, natural gas for November delivery NGX12 -1.61% shed 7 cents, or 1.9%, to $3.46 per million British thermal units. Heating oil for November delivery HOX2 -0.50% traded down 1 cent at $3.11 a gallon.
Gasoline for November delivery RBX2 -1.66% retreated 4 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.83 a gallon.
Robert Daniel is MarketWatch's Middle East bureau chief, based in Tel Aviv.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
