Oil prices fell Thursday as the U.S. dollar gained, putting pressure on the dollar-denominated crude market.
Crude's losses came a day after prices had rebounded on hopes that steps toward a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine would boost economic growth in Europe.
Trading has been volatile over the past week, said Andrey Kryuchenkov of VTB Capital, after a long summer decline in prices.
"Players in the U.S. returned to the market after the long holiday weekend on Tuesday and aggravated the short selling while volumes have finally started to gain," he wrote in a note to clients. "A stronger U.S. currency added to the pain, with oil futures joining a broader commodity selloff."
On Thursday, the dollar shot to a 14-month high against the euro after the European Central Bank unexpectedly cut its main refinancing and deposit rates in a bid to stimulate an economic recovery in the eurozone. A stronger dollar makes assets such as crude oil more expensive to investors holding other currencies.
Brent crude oil for October delivery was down 39 cents, or 0.4%, at $102.38 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Light, sweet crude for October delivery was down $1.01, or 1.1%, at $94.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The low prices are making Brent competitive against other types of crude oil. Saudi Arabia released its prices for October loading crude, with "cuts for every grade in every region," according to JBC Energy. The deepest cuts were to prices for oil deliveries in Asia, according to JBC.
JBC noted that Saudi crude was still expensive relative to key competitors such as Brent.
"What seems apparent is that in both Europe and Asia, Saudi Aramco is making an effort to price its crudes more competitively against a troublesome Brent benchmark," said JBC, referring to the national oil company which sets Saudi selling prices.
Front-month October reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, was down 0.4 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.6160 a gallon. October diesel eased 0.62 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.8596 a gallon.
