By Eric Yep
Crude-oil futures fell slightly in Asia Thursday as trading
remained subdued in a well-supplied market.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures
for delivery in October traded at $93.57 a barrel at 0523 GMT, down
$0.31 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on
London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.13 to $102.59 a barrel.
Nymex crude-oil prices didn't react much to data that showed
U.S. oil stocks fell 2.1 million barrels to 360.5 million
barrels--the lowest level since Jan. 31--in the week ended Aug.
22.
"A crude stock decline was driven by continuing high refinery
operations," BNP Paribas said in a report. However, crude stocks at
the Nymex delivery point of Cushing, Okla., rose for a fourth
successive week, by 500,000 barrels.
"Record-setting liquid fuels production growth in the United
States has more than offset the growth of unplanned global supply
disruptions over the past few years," the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said.
It said U.S. liquid fuels production, including crude oil, grew
by more than 4 million barrels a day from January 2011 to July
2014, offsetting supply disruptions of around 2.8 million barrels a
day.
Oil markets remain complacent due to this rising supply.
On Wednesday, Kiev accused Moscow of sending tanks into
rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine and seizing several villages in
a new offensive. In Iraq, the U.S. is planning a wider military
campaign against Islamist militants with expanded airstrikes and
humanitarian-aid drops.
Brent crude appears to have found its footing at a price level
slightly over $100 a barrel, Citi Research analyst Seth Kleinman
said. But the front-month contracts remain in steep contango with
Nigerian crudes still struggling to find homes and floating storage
continuing to pile up in the Atlantic Basin.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for September--the
benchmark gasoline contract--fell 4 points to $2.7455 a gallon,
while September diesel traded at $2.8602, 3 points lower.
ICE gasoil for September changed hands at $867.00 a metric ton,
up $2.50 from Wednesday's settlement.
Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com