WTI oil futures open Wednesday’s trading session holding near $92 a barrel as stock markets fell once again, but oil prices hanged onto recent gains, boosted by weak oil data from the US API (American Petroleum Institute).
Latest WTI Oil Price
US Light crude oil futures for December 2011 delivery was trading at $92.04 a barrel, 06.30 GMT this morning in electronic trading on the NYMEX. The US contract closed off yesterday’s trading session at $91.54, or 1.7 percent lower.
US Oil Stocks
The US industry group American Petroleum Institute in a report late on Tuesday said domestic American crude oil inventories fell 156,000 barrels last week.
Analysts had expected a slight rise in the weekly figures.
The US EIA (Energy Information Administration) will report their weekly figures later today.
Bearish Market
Investors also monitored reverberations from Monday’s bankruptcy filing by brokerage MF Global, whilst Europe’s debt problems sent stock markets lower and crude oil prices trimmed recent gains.
“A big part of the day’s downdraft came from the surprise referendum announcement from Greece and the turmoil at MF Global is adding to the general bearish mood of the market.” said Mark Anderle, a broker at TAC Energy, Dallas.