|
U.S.
crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was up 34
cents at $59.86 a barrel at 6.44 a.m. EDT, staying within a
range of $57-$62 per barrel that has been in place since the
beginning of May.
Brent was down 11 cents at $63.84 per barrel.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a tropical storm
warning on Tuesday for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to High
Island.
Chevron Corp and Royal Dutch Shell have evacuated non-essential
workers from oil platforms but have not yet shut production in a
basin responsible for nearly a fifth of U.S. crude oil output.
"The storm explains WTI's outperformance over Brent, and maybe
there is some expectation in the market that U.S. inventory data
will show another draw, which could explain the small rebound in
prices," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank in
Frankfurt.
U.S. crude stocks are forecast to have fallen 1.8 million
barrels week-on-week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts,
the seventh weekly draw in a row. The data from the Energy
Information Administration is due on Wednesday.
"That has been the main source of support, because OPEC is still
over-supplying," said Ole Hansen, senior commodity strategist at
Saxo Bank.
Unsold North Sea and West African crude barrels are building up
in tankers offshore in the Atlantic Basin, weighing on physical
crude prices. This is despite the fact that European refiners
are running hard to take advantage of strong margins.
"The amount of crude oil afloat on the water off the coast of
the UK is increasing and that is putting considerable pressure
on the North Sea price structure," Olivier Jakob, an oil analyst
at Petromatrix, said in a note.
"The last time we had a North Sea structure as weak was in July
of last year, a move that preceded the big flat price dump," he
warned.
(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and
Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Dale Hudson)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
