Brent crude price rises above $50 a barrel again on US stockpile data
The price of Brent crude has risen back above $50 a barrel, after trading below the key threshold for a short time today.
This was boosted by data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), released today, which showed domestic crude inventories fell 553,000 barrels last week, against a 1.7m barrel increase forecast by analysts.
In late afternoon trading, the global benchmark was back from a day-low of $49.65, but was still trading down 1.36 per cent, or 69 cents, to $50.10.
Brent's US equivalent, West Texas Intermediate crude, was still below $50, trading down 0.96 per cent, or 48 cents, to $49.51.
The fall earlier in the day was prompted by preliminary data released yesterday by the American Petroleum Institute (API), which had shown a rise of 4.8m barrels in the week ended 21 October, against an expected smaller climb of 1.7m barrels.
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This added to growing fears of a renewed global supply glut, which squabbles within the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) have done little to dispel.
Iraq, the second largest producer in the 14-member consortium, has said it wants to be exempt from firming up a provisional output cut at a meeting in Vienna next month, after arguing it needs to use oil revenues to fight so-called Islamic State.
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A week ago, US sweet crude reached its highest level in more than a year after EIA data showed a draw in stocks.
Elsewhere, lower oil prices continued to put pressure on global oil majors, as Chinese groups Cnooc and Sinopec both reported falling revenue in the most recent quarter.
Revenues at Sinopec fell 32 per cent to 9bn renmbini while turnover at Cnooc dipped 14.5 per cent to 32.2bn renmbini.