BLBG:Crude Futures Trade Near Two-Week High in New York on Iran Supply Risks
Oil traded near its highest in two weeks as the clash between Iran and Western governments heightened speculation that Middle East supplies may be at risk.
Futures were little changed, erasing gains as a strengthening dollar reduced the appeal of commodities priced in the U.S. currency. Prices earlier advanced as much as 0.6 percent after the U.K. closed its embassy in Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer, following an attack by protesters.
“Any shortfall of Iranian production on the world market would bring a massive deterioration to the world balance,” Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said in an interview with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse.” Prices could surge to $150 in the event of conflict in the Persian Gulf, he said.
Crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $100.07 a barrel, down 29 cents, at 11:30 a.m. London time. Brent oil for January settlement fell 1.2 percent to $109.36 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate narrowed to $9.29 from $10.16 yesterday.
The U.S. Energy Department said yesterday that oil stockpiles rose 3.9 million barrels last week, compared with a forecast increase of 50,000 barrels in a Bloomberg survey.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
