By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures slipped in choppy electronic trading during European business hours Wednesday, weighed by a firmer dollar and a dented demand outlook from the International Energy Agency.
April futures for light sweet crude oil CLJ2 -0.28% dropped 31 cents, or 0.3%, to $106.50 a barrel. The front-month contract gained 37 cents Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The U.S. dollar DXY +0.25% strengthened, weighing on prices of commodities.
The decline in oil prices also came as the International Energy Agency said in its monthly oil report that it expects global oil demand to grow 0.9% in 2012, as the economic backdrop and high oil prices “restrain any upside momentum for consumption.”
The agency projects global daily demand of 89.9 million barrels in 2012.
The report also showed that global oil supply fell 200.000 barrels a day in February, with the highest output level for OPEC since 2008 only partly offsetting a decline from non-OPEC countries.
Geopolitical concerns about potential losses related to Iran add more uncertainty for crude outlook, the agency said.
Later in the day, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report a fourth consecutive weekly rise in crude-oil inventories.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, April heating oil HOJ2 +0.15% was flat at $3.27 per gallon and natural-gas futures NGJ12 -0.04% fell 1 cent to $2.29 per million British thermal units.
April gasoline futures RBJ2 +0.45% rose 1 cent to $3.37 per gallon.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
