“West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a fifth day in its longest run of declines since December. Antitrust regulators are questioning European oil companies about possible manipulation of prices.
Futures traded near their lowest closing level in almost two weeks in New York. Crude inventories gained 1.1 million barrels last week, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institutesaid yesterday. A government report today may show stockpiles climbed 450,000 barrels, according to a Bloomberg survey. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc, Statoil ASA and Platts said they’re being investigated after the European Commission conducted raids on their offices in three countries.
“The world will remain well-supplied,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London. “Higher prices lately have triggered a boost to capacity that will continue to outpace slack post-crisis demand growth.”
WTI for June delivery fell as much as 77 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $93.44 a barrel and was at $93.63 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:15 a.m. London time. The volume of all contracts traded was 25 percent above the 100-day average. Prices decreased 96 cents to $94.21 yesterday, the biggest decline since May 1 and the lowest close since May 2.
Brent for June settlement fell 13 cents to $102.47 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The volume of contracts traded was 57 percent higher than the 100-day average. The front-month European benchmark was at a premium of $8.90 to WTI, from $8.39 yesterday. It closed at $7.65 on May 13, the narrowest gap since January 2011.
