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Helping to drive the latest gain, a supply report from the U.S.
Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed crude and
fuel inventories tightened, with crude inventories at the
Cushing storage hub falling to a three-year low. [EIA/S]
Brent crude rose as high as $86.10, the highest since October
2018, but by 1022 GMT was down 89 cents, or 1%, to $84.93. U.S.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 64 cents, or 0.8%, to $82.78.
"We saw some correction, but overall sentiment remained firm as
there have been no large increases in output by the United
States or OPEC," said Satoru Yoshida, a commodity analyst with
Rakuten Securities.
The price of Brent has risen over 60% this year, supported by a
slow ramp-up in supply by the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries and allies, and a global coal and gas crunch
which has driven a switch to oil for power generation.
Oil also came under pressure from a drop in coal and natural gas
prices. In China, coal fell 11% on Thursday, extending losses
this week since Beijing signalled it might intervene to cool the
market.
"With coal and gas prices easing and with the relative strength
index technical indicators still in overbought territory, the
odds of a sharp, but material fall in oil prices are rising,"
said Jeffrey Halley, analyst at brokerage OANDA.
Even so, some analysts are calling for oil to rally even more as
OPEC+ is likely to stick to its plan for gradual output
increases while demand is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels.
Giovanni Staunovo of Swiss bank UBS said in a report he expected
Brent to trade at $90 in December and March.
(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Jason Neely)
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