BLBG:Oil Trades Near Lowest This Year on Rising Stockpiles, European Outlook
Oil rose in New York for the first time in four days before a meeting of European leaders to tackle the European debt crisis. OPEC can’t intervene against Western plans to block Iranian oil, Venezuela said.
Futures rose as much as 0.5 percent as Germany’s chancellor prepared to meet the International Monetary Fund’s managing director today in Berlin. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries can’t get involved in a dispute between the U.S. and Iran over sanctions, Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters yesterday in Caracas.
“The supply side shock potential is keeping the oil price where it is,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney who forecasts New York crude will average $110 this year. “The situation in Europe is impacting on economic growth, but we think that story is so well factored into the market now.”
Crude for February delivery rose as much as 49 cents to $101.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $101.78 at 1:06 p.m. Singapore time. The contract yesterday slipped 0.3 percent to $101.31, the lowest close since Dec. 30. Prices rose 8.2 percent in 2011, the third annual increase.
Brent oil for February settlement was at $112.79 a barrel, up 34 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate futures narrowed for a second day to $10.96.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in Singapore at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
