LONDON — Brent oil slipped below $111 per barrel on Thursday, weighed by a bigger than expected rise in US crude stockpiles, but Libyan supply disruption kept prices supported.
Brent crude fell 38c to $110.93 a barrel by 9.44am GMT It is still up 2% in November, and over $8 above its low for the month.
US oil fell 12c to $92.18, hovering near the lowest in almost six months. It touched a low of $91.77 on Wednesday, its weakest since June 3.
US crude oil stocks rose by almost 3-million barrels to 391-million barrels, their highest level for November since records began in 1982, the Energy Information Administration said in weekly data on Wednesday.
The EIA also said US crude oil output last week exceeded 8-million barrels a day for the first time since January 1989. Earlier this month, its data showed that crude production exceeded imports for the first time in nearly two decades.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Wednesday his government would be unable to pay public salaries and may have to seek loans if armed militias blockading oil fields and ports continued to choke off crude shipments.
Trade is set to be light due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
"Libya concerns are market supportive still, but nervous, jittery trading is here to stay (and) with the US off today volumes will be low," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, strategist at VTB Capital.
Refiners in Europe and the US are coming back from maintenance and increasing output which has seen demand for crude recovering.
International Energy Agency (IEA) head Maria van der Hoeven said oil markets were adequately supplied even with the prospect of dwindling crude output from Libya.
In addition, Iranian supplies may increase if Tehran follows through on its commitments reached in a breakthrough deal with world powers over its nuclear programme at the weekend.
Brent oil’s premium to US crude was at $18.92 a barrel, just off its highest level since March.
"This opens a window of competitive advantage to US industry which can only accelerate economic recovery there," Jefferies Bache broker Christopher Bellew said.
