Crude holds above $107.50 a barrel as diplomatic efforts to place Syria`s chemical weapons under international control intensified, averting the threat of that US military action could lead to disruption of oil supplies from the Middle East. US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his counterpart Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday to discuss Syria`s chemical weapons arsenal.
“Everyone is closely watching how Syria`s situation will develop. Traders are reluctant to change their positions as the outlook for Syria`s problem remain uncertain”, said Koichi Murakami from Daiichi Commodities Co Ltd.
- Crude is trading around $107.63 a barrel after rising $0.07
- Brent is trading around $111.55 a barrel after rising $0.05
“Another focus in the market are the US financial policies to be unveiled next week”, Murakami added. There are growing expectations that next week the Federal Reserve might start tapering its massive bond-buying program.
Last week’s disappointing jobs data convinced some expects that any reduction might be smaller than previously believed. still any cut in the monetary stimulus would likely boost the US dollar, adding downside pressures on commodities including oil.
Also, holding prices steady is the announcement made by Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer of oil in OPEC; it said global oil market is well-supplied, and that the nation will meet additional demand as geopolitical concerns dominate the market.
- Natural gas is trading at $3.553 per cubic feet after falling 0.39%
- Gasoline is trading at $2.7177 per cubic feet after rising 0.20%
- Heating oil (diesel) is trading at $3.0782 a gallon after rising 0.21%
The US Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 219,000 barrels last week, a much smaller decline than the 2.1 million barrels decrease analysts had expected.
Gasoline stockpiles rose unexpectedly by 1.66 million barrels. They were expected to drop by 1 million. Distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel, climbed by 2.59 million, compared with a projected 600,000 increase.