Brent Extends Drop as Mideast Oil Supply Stays Safe; WTI Steady
Brent fell for a second day amid speculation that turmoil across the Middle East won’t threaten crude supplies. West Texas Intermediate was steady in New York after a technical issue disrupted electronic trading.
“The region is in chaos but production continues to rise,” Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said by phone from Dubai.
Brent for October settlement declined as much as 64 cents to $101.65 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange and was at $102.19 at 2:40 p.m. Singapore time.
WTI for October delivery was 4 cents lower at $93.61 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at a discount of $8.54 to Brent, compared with a close of $8.64 on Aug. 22.
In Libya, production climbed to 656,000 barrels a day from 612,000 barrels on Aug. 21, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman at state-run National Oil Corp., said yesterday.
In Iraq, U.S. President Barack Obama’s bid to have Arabs take the lead in combating Islamic State suffered a setback as Sunni lawmakers quit talks on forming a new government, after Shiite gunmen killed scores of worshipers at a mosque.
Conflict in Iraq, the second-biggest OPEC producer, has largely spared the south, home to about three-quarters of its crude output. The nation pumped 3 million barrels a day last month, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Source: Bloomberg
