The price of Brent oil futures remains flat near $109 a barrel on Thursday afternoon as traders assess the prospects for oil demand after the US and Europe emerge from winter which has seen the spread in US WTI crude oil prices narrow to back under $7 to Europe’s ICE Brent.
Latest Brent Oil Price
In London, Brent crude oil futures for April 2014 delivery was trading at $108.87 a barrel, 15:12 GMT this afternoon on the ICE Futures Exchange, or 0.6 percent lower on the day. Meanwhile, US WTI oil stood at $102.11 a barrel, or $6.76 a barrel under the Brent price.
US API Weekly Oil Data
US crude inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels last week, data from industry group the US API (American Petroleum Institute) showed, even though overall domestic stockpiles rose by 822,000 barrels.
“I think the story really is the divergence between (US) WTI prices and Brent prices because of the API figures.” said Christopher Bellew, oil futures broker at Jefferies Bache.
“There’s a little bit of weakness in Brent, possibly because there’s no fresh bad news on the geopolitical front. However we’re still holding above $109 and it could work its way back up to $110.” Bellew said.
