BLBG:Oil Trades Near One-Week High Before Europe Meeting on Greek Aid
Oil traded near the highest level in almost a week before euro-area finance ministers discuss aid for Greece to tame a debt crisis that threatens to derail the economic recovery and curb fuel demand.
Futures fluctuated in New York after capping the biggest weekly gain since October on Nov. 23. It would be “irresponsible not to reach an accord” on Greece, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said yesterday on BFM television. Oil rose last week amid concern that fighting between Israel and Hamas and unrest in Egypt will spread and disrupt Middle East crude supplies. Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, agreed on a cease-fire Nov. 21
“It looks like Europe is going to release another tranche of aid to Greece, so that has supported oil,” said Victor Shum, the managing director of IHS Consulting in Singapore. The truce over Gaza “seems to be holding, so that has become secondary to the situation in Egypt. All eyes are really on Egypt right now,” he said.
West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down 8 cents at $88.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 4:13 p.m. Singapore time. Futures gained 90 cents to $88.28 a barrel on Nov. 23, the highest settlement since Nov. 19. Prices rose 1.9 percent last week and are down 11 percent this year.
Brent for January settlement lost 25 cents to $111.13 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $22.93 to New York-traded WTI, compared with $23.10 on Nov. 23.
Euro Crisis
Euro-area finance ministers are trying for the third time this month to clear an aid payment to Greece and forge a blueprint to keep the country a solvent member of the currency bloc. Finance chiefs from the 17-member single currency return to Brussels today, less than a week after an all-night meeting failed to yield agreement and days after a European Union summit broke up without a proposed seven-year budget.
The EU accounted for 16 percent of the world’s 88 million barrels a day of oil consumption last year, according to Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi will meet the nation’s judicial council today, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported, citing presidential spokesman Yasser Ali. Protests have mounted since Mursi issued a Nov. 22 decree that prevents his actions from being challenged by the courts.
Thousands of people poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focal point for an uprising last year, to protest Mursi’s order after the Egyptian judiciary announced Nov. 24 that courts will suspend work until the decision is rescinded. Mursi said the powers are temporary and necessary to ensure the formulation of a new constitution, while demonstrators have said the edict echoes those by the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak.
Gaza Strip
Israel is allowing Palestinian boats to fish six miles (9.7 kilometers) from the Gaza coast, as opposed to three miles previously, Salah al-Bardaweel, a Hamas official, said by telephone yesterday. It’s the first time in three years that Israel has allowed fishing that far from the shore, Israel Army Radio reported.
Israel and Hamas agreed on a cease-fire after eight days of air and missile strikes that left more than 160 Palestinians and six Israelis dead. The conflict threatens further instability in the Middle East and North Africa after a wave of uprisings that started last year, including one that almost entirely halted crude exports from Libya. The region accounted for about 40 percent of the world’s oil output last year, according to BP.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jacob Adelman in Tokyo at jadelman1@bloomberg.net; Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
