16 July 2013, News Wires – Brent crude oil rose towards $110 per barrel on Tuesday, reaching a three-month high, due to lower inventories, firm demand and concern that turmoil in Egypt could disrupt supply.
Brent crude oil rose towards $110 per barrel on Tuesday, reaching a three-month high, due to lower inventories, firm demand and concern that turmoil in Egypt could disrupt supply.
Brent crude gained 41 cents to $109.50 a barrel by 1039 GMT. US oil added 23 cents to $106.55. It touched this year’s high of $107.45 on 11 July.
Brent oil has risen nearly $9 in the last three weeks and US crude more than $13, lifted by sharply falling US crude oil stocks, an improving economic outlook and supply disruption.
“Global demand has picked up strongly, there are huge supply problems at a time when refineries are increasing output,” said Amrita Sen, analyst at Energy Aspects.
She pointed to production disruption in Libya, which has been hit by protests and in Nigeria which has been affected by oil theft leading to the lowest output in years.
Investors are also watching developments in Egypt, where seven people were killed and more than 260 wounded when supporters of Mohamed Mursi clashed with the deposed president’s opponents and security forces through the night.
Testimony on Wednesday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will also be in focus. There is a view that the US central bank will reduce its bond buying this year and scrap it by mid-2014.
The strength in oil, partly caused by speculative investors, could start to dampen demand, analysts said.
“There’s a lot of speculative money in oil, but high gasoline prices are having a dampening effect as it is limiting consumer demand,” said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Uncertainty about the demand outlook also braked further gains.
German analyst and investor sentiment unexpectedly fell in July after negative data for Europe’s largest economy, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Asian Development Bank, ADB, on Tuesday lowered its growth forecasts for developing Asia this year and the next as a softer outlook for China meant subdued economic activity elsewhere in the region.
A day earlier, China said its second-quarter growth slowed.
US commercial crude stocks probably fell 2 million barrels on average for the week ended July 12, a Reuters poll of eight analysts showed.
US crude inventories plunged 20 million barrels over the previous two weeks, the deepest two-week draw on record, Energy Information Administration data showed on 10 July.
New weekly figures from the American Petroluem Institute are due to be published at 2030 GMT.
– Upstream
