By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures lost ground Monday, continuing to give back the fear premium on growing confidence Iraq’s oil exports will remain insulated from the turmoil.
On the ICE, August Brent crude futures UK:LCOQ4 -0.69% fell 77 cents, or 0.7%, to $112.53 a barrel. Brent, the global oil benchmark, had topped $115 earlier this month, setting a nine-month high as Sunni insurgents swept across cities in northern Iraq.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August WTI crude futures CLQ4 -0.27% fell 43 cents, or 0.4%, to $105.31 a barrel.
Media surveys of June oil production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, are expected to confirm the cartel continued to supply sufficient oil to the market this month and that the fighting in the north of Iraq has so far had no effect on Iraq’s oil output, wrote analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Crude exports from the southern Iraqi port of Basra run at around 2.5 million barrels a day, equal to around 3% of global production, analysts say.
Oil futures on Friday posted their second consecutive weekly decline, with healthy domestic U.S. supplies adding to selling pressure.
