WTI Crude Trades Near Month’s High; U.S. Supplies Seen Rising
By Grant Smith and Ben Sharples - Mar 19, 2013
West Texas Intermediate traded near a one-month high as tension eased over a bank tax in Cyprus that threatens to worsen Europe’s debt crisis. A report today may show U.S. crude supplies rose to the most since June.
Futures were little changed in New York. Prices rebounded yesterday, from an intraday drop of as much as 1.8 percent, after European policy makers signaled flexibility on a savings levy linked to a bailout for Cyprus. U.S. crude supplies probably rose for a ninth week, the longest run of increases since May, a Bloomberg News survey showed before an Energy Department report tomorrow. Crude at about $100 a barrel is “reasonable” and won’t choke global economic growth, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said yesterday.
“The number one story in the markets is still about an island in the Mediterranean with approximately 1 million inhabitants,” said Michael Poulsen, an analyst at Global Risk Management in Middelfart, Denmark, adding that oil prices are likely to remain “fairly balanced.”
WTI for April delivery, which expires tomorrow, was at $93.64 a barrel, down 10 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:40 a.m. London time. The more- active May future slipped 10 cents to $94.01. The volume of all futures traded was 15 percent above the 100-day average. The front-month contract climbed 29 cents to $93.74 yesterday, the highest close since Feb. 20.
Price Rebound
Brent for May settlement slid 77 cents to $108.74 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Volumes were 19 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $14.76 to WTI futures for the same month. It closed at $15.40 yesterday, the narrowest differential since Jan. 17.
Crude in New York has technical resistance along its middle Bollinger Band, around $93.80 a barrel today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Futures have halted intraday advances near this indicator the past two days, showing it’s where sell orders may be clustered. A breach of chart resistance at settlement signals further price increases may be sustained.
“Saudi Arabia does not set the price” of oil, Al-Naimi said in speech in Hong Kong. “The market sets the price. That said, I’m sure current levels will not deter further economic growth in Asia.”
Angry Cypriots
Oil recovered yesterday as European officials said Cyprus can ease the terms of the levy on bank deposits that seeks to raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) as part of a rescue package. Local outrage over the tax threatens to derail the nation’s bailout and extend a European recession.
U.S. crude inventories climbed by 2 million barrels to 386 million in the seven days ended March 15, according to the median estimate of seven analysts in the Bloomberg survey. Gasoline stockpiles probably fell by 2 million barrels, the survey shows. Supplies of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, probably fell 1 million barrels to 119 million, the lowest level this year.
“We’re seeing supply in the U.S. increasing but we haven’t seen any real positive move in demand,” said David Lennox, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “There hasn’t been any significant change in the driving factors for the oil market.”
The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to release separate inventory data today. The API collects stockpile information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistics unit, for its weekly survey.
Retail gasoline prices in the U.S. slid to an average $3.696 a gallon, a one-month low, according to data on the EIA’s website yesterday. That compares with $3.71 a week earlier.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Raj Rajendran at rrajendran4@bloomberg.net
