By Eric Yep
Crude-oil futures were little changed in Asian trade Tuesday
with Brent almost flat as tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East
stemmed further losses in oil prices.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures
for delivery in October traded at $95.77 a barrel at 0424 GMT, down
$0.19 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on
London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.02 to $102.77 a barrel.
U.S. markets will reopen after the Labor Day holiday weekend and
investors are likely to assess recent developments in Ukraine and
Libya, and manufacturing and economic data from different
countries, traders said.
In Ukraine the military is moving to adopt a defensive strategy
against an incursion by Russian troops, even as U.S. and European
officials discuss a fresh round of sanctions against Moscow.
Libya's outgoing cabinet has acknowledged that it has lost
control of the capital Tripoli to Islamist-allied militias, risking
oil production that averaged around 500,000 barrels a day at the
end of August.
Crude prices appear to have stabilized, helped by strong West
African crude flows to Asia, but there are significant factors that
will prevent a near-term price recovery, Michael Wittner, head of
oil research at Societe Generale said in a weekly report.
He said a seasonal drop in global oil refinery operating levels
in September and October, rising exports of Libyan crude oil and
increasing volumes of crude being placed in storage, will help
maintain downward pressure on front-month Brent crude prices.
"In the next couple of months, we see rangebound crude markets,
with front-month ICE Brent trading around $102.50 ($100-105 range)
and Nymex WTI trading around $95 ($92.50-97.50 range)," Mr. Wittner
said.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for October--the
benchmark gasoline contract--fell 62 points to $2.6167 a gallon,
while October diesel traded at $2.8513, 88 points lower.
ICE gasoil for September changed hands at $865.50 a metric ton,
up $2.00 from Monday's settlement.
Write to Eric Yep at eric.yep@wsj.com