Prices of oil hovered in Asia on Thursday settling near $103 per barrel following the revelation of a report that demonstrated mixed hints about the demand of crude in the United States.
February delivery’s benchmark crude dropped by 18 cents as it settled at a value of $103.04 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange, during electronic trading at midday Singapore time. The contract for benchmark crude increased by 26 cents, as it settled at a value of $103.22 on Wednesday in New York.
On the other hand, on the ICE futures exchange, Brent crude dropped by 60 cents, as it settled at a value of $113.10 per barrel in London.
According to the American Petroleum Institute, it was revealed on Wednesday that there was a 4.4 million barrels drop in crude inventories in the past week, while according to analysts, who were surveyed by Platts, expected crude inventories to drop by 450,000 barrels.
In the last week, gasoline inventories added 3.4 million barrels, whereas distillates increased by 5.2 million barrels. Later on Thursday, the Energy Information Administration of the Energy Department will be reporting its weekly supply data.
Traders are looking at increasing tensions between the western powers and iran closely. Iran has issued a warning and has also threatened to close the important oil pathway of Strait of Homuz as potential response to the new European and United States economic sanctions. On the other hand, the United States, which is the largest economy of the world, has said that if Iran decides to close Strait of Homuz, it will not tolerate such a move.
During other Nymex trading, heating oil dropped by 1 cent to settle at a value of $3.08 per gallon, while futures of gasoline dropped by 1.3 cents as they settled at a value of $2.77 per each gallon.
