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 By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. crude for December
delivery was down 51 cents to $93.37 a barrel in electronic trading
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 84 cents to
close at $93.88 on Wednesday.
Investors are awaiting testimony by incoming Federal Reserve chief
Janet Yellen for clues about when the U.S. will cut back, or taper,
its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases that have kept interest
rates low to support economic recovery.
Yellen, who is set to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman at the
end of January, will testify before the Senate banking committee
later Thursday.
In published introductory remarks, she indicated that the Fed's
stimulus should continue until the world's No.1 economy show
continued signs of improvement.
The U.S. Nymex benchmark is down by about 8 percent in the past
month. Traders say further declines are likely, as U.S. crude output
keeps rising.
Data from the Energy Department showed that in October, for the
first time since 1995, the U.S. produced more crude oil than it
imported — 7.7 million barrels a day against 7.6 million barrels a
day.
"This is a trend that is likely to continue next year — crude oil
production looks set to grow to 8.9 million barrels per day by the
end of 2014, while crude oil imports are expected to drop to 5.8
million barrels per day," said analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt
in a note to clients.
U.S. crude stockpiles data for the week ended Nov. 8, due later
Thursday, are expected to show an increase of 1.8 million barrels,
according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information
arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. It would the eighth week in a row that
stockpiles have risen.
After protests and disruptions at refineries in Libya, a vital
supplier to Europe, Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up
72 cents to $107.84 a barrel on the ICE exchange in London.
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The International Energy Agency's latest monthly report on the oil
market said the production problems in Libya and other countries
like Iraq "continue to relentlessly fester" and could provide
support to oil prices in the coming months.
At the same time, however, the Paris-based IEA noted the recent
fall in oil prices was partially due to a seasonal drop in demand.
"The recent easing of prices may be relatively short lived," the
IEA's November report said, envisaging rising demand from both
consumers and refineries. "Given proverbial uncertainties about the
weather and geopolitics, the market might not be at the end of its
roller coaster ride."
In other energy futures trading on Nymex:
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Wholesale gasoline added 1.45 cents to $2.6276 a gallon.
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Heating oil shed 0.39 cent to $2.8938 a gallon.
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Natural gas fell 4.7 cents to $3.519 per 1,000 cubic feet.
[Associated
Press; PABLO GORONDI]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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