Forexpros – Crude oil futures were lower in Asian trading Thursday, cooling earlier gains made on fears that geopolitical tensions involving Iran were poised to threaten supply.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at USD102.03 a barrel, down 0.11%.

The commodity hit an earlier session high of USD102.41 and a low of USD101.97.

Europe has slapped an oil import ban on Iranian crude effective July 1 to sanction the country for its nuclear ambitions, although Iran has said it will cut off Europe before then.

Reports hit Iranian airwaves that shipments had already stopped flowing to the Netherlands, Greece, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy although the Iranian Oil Ministry denied television reports, which cooled oil’s gains in earlier European and U.S. sessions.

In Europe, fears that Greece has run into fresh impasses with the European Union over implementing austerity measures pressured oil downwards, offsetting gains made from Iran-related geopolitical tensions.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Energy Department reported that crude oil inventories fell by 0.2 million barrels in the week ended February 10, missing projections for a 1.7 million barrel increase.

U.S. crude supplies rose by 0.3 million barrels in the preceding week.

Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 339.1 million barrels as of last week, remaining in the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

Motor gasoline inventories climbed by 0.4 million barrels, below the 0.7 million barrels the market was expecting to see, after jumping by 1.6 million barrels in the preceding week.

On the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for April delivery were down 0.37% and trading at USD118.64 a barrel, up USD16.61 from its U.S. counterpart.

The gap in price between the two contracts is pushing very close toward the higher end of a range between a nearly USD20.00 all-time high and a historical spread of USD1.00.

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