“West Texas Intermediate crude declined from the highest closing price in seven weeks on speculation that supplies will remain sufficient in the U.S. even if stockpiles decreased as forecast last week.
Futures fell as much as 0.5 percent in New York after advancing for a fourth day yesterday. U.S. crude supplies fell by 800,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before a report tomorrow from the Energy Information Administration. That would still leave inventories 3 percent higher than a year ago. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to release its stockpile data today.
“There’s nothing here to fundamentally justify a sustained price push at the moment, while expectations of future supplies are rather comfortable,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London.
WTI for June delivery was at $96.21 a barrel, down 50 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 12:15 p.m. London time. The contract expires today. The volume of all contracts traded was 7.3 percent below the 100-day average. The more active July future fell 52 cents to $96.42. Front-month prices increased 69 cents yesterday, or 0.7 percent, to $96.71, the highest close since April 2.
Brent for July settlement slid 71 cents to $104.09 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $7.68 to WTI for the same month, down from $7.87 yesterday.
