Forexpros – Crude oil futures were down for the first time in three days on Wednesday, amid lingering concerns over the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone and after industry data showed that U.S. crude supplies rose the most in five weeks last week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at USD83.69 a barrel during European morning trade, dropping 0.96%.
It earlier fell as much as 1.5% to trade at a daily low of USD82.67 a barrel.
Market sentiment was hit following reports of a split in the single currency bloc over Greece’s second EUR109 bailout package, amid growing concerns that the country’s funding needs rose significantly in the past few months.
Adding to investors’ nervousness, Finland was to hold a vote on a potential enhancement of the European Financial Stability Facility later in the day.
Oil traders were also awaiting fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products to gauge the strength of oil demand in the world’s largest oil consumer.
The data was expected to show that U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose by 1.0 million barrels, while gasoline supplies were forecast to rise by 1.1 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said that U.S. crude inventories rose by 0.56 million barrels, while total gasoline supplies jumped 4.6 million barrels, fuelling concerns that energy demand in the U.S. was weakening.
The U.S. accounted for 21% of global oil demand in 2011, while the European Union accounted for about 16%, according to data from British Petroleum.
Some mild profit taking also weighed, following Tuesday’s 5.3% rally in crude prices, amid concerns over the global economic outlook.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for November delivery surged 2.66% to trade at USD106.70 a barrel, up USD23.01 a barrel on its U.S. counterpart.
Brent’s sharp gains came as Royal Dutch Shell shut in 25,000 barrels per day of oil production in Nigeria, while Libyan crude supplies have yet to reach the market.
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