Oil around $59 after drop on crude build
Oil edged lower on Friday to around $59 a barrel after tumbling on a build in crude stocks, but trade was muted by a U.S. holiday.
London Brent crude shed 7 cents to $59.28 a barrel at 6:46 a.m. after falling by 14 cents a day ago.
U.S. crude was trading at $59.07 a barrel, just below Wednesday's close. The New York Mercantile Exchange was shut for the two day Thanksgiving holiday, with electronic Global trade continuing but liquidity thin.
Prices dropped by nearly $1 on Wednesday due to a 5.1 million barrel rise in U.S. crude stocks, but may be drawing support from Iran's dispute with the West after the U.N. nuclear watchdog blocked Tehran's bid for technical aid on reactor project.
"The concerns over tensions between Iran and the West flaring again, has resurfaced, this should give upward pressure to prices," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior investment strategist at CFC Securities in Hong Kong.
On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency's board indefinitely denied Iran's request for technical aid for the Arak reactor project it believes could be secretly used to yield bomb-grade plutonium.
Iran however insists that its nuclear agenda is limited to generating electricity or as in the case of the Arak project, radio isotopes for medical purposes.
The United States and European allies suspect the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme is a cover for building a bomb, and have drafted U.N. sanctions against Tehran.
On Thursday Qatar oil minister dulled down hawkish comments made last week on OPEC production cuts.
"It's too early now to jump to the front seat and say what we will do, what is the quantity if we want to cut, Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah told reporters in Seoul.
- 1 Hutton meets Iraq's Maliki in Baghdad
- 2 Global recession rocks Asia factories as demand fades
- 3 Government to borrow to revive economy
- 4 Germany falls into recession
- 5 Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan
- 6 Darling defends higher borrowing plans
- 7 Russia ready to respond if U.S. ends missile plan
|
|
