Crude Falls Below $110 on Profit-Taking, OPEC's Output Steady
Crude futures declined on Thursday from a record high after profit-taking moves and OPEC signs of keeping output steady.
Crude futures fell 94 cents or 0.85 percent to $109.93 a barrel by 3:07 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices reached a record high of $112.21 a barrel yesterday in New York on the inventories report.
On Wednesday the U.S. Energy Department reported that crude oil stockpiles surprisingly fell 3.1 million barrels last week, more than the 2.3 million expected.
In the same report, the department said total implied U.S. fuel demand in the past 4 weeks averaged 20.5 million barrels a day meaning 0.4 percent less than a year earlier.
Oil prices found support in the declines of the dollar which slumped against the euro and prompted investments into commodities such as oil, gold and copper to compensate for inflation.
Despite of the falling inventories report, Saudi Arabia member of OPEC and top exported said markets don't need more crude supply and declared that high prices are not due to a lack of oil inventories.
In my perspective, the oil market is well-supplied. The price is not at that level because of any shortage in supply, said Ali al-Naimi to reporters today at the International Oil Summit in Paris, Reuters noted.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is responsible for about 40 percent of totals oil output and Saudi Arabia is the top producer of this organization.
Consumer countries have asked OPEC to increase output but in the most recent meetings the organization has resolved to keep levels steady.
Brent crude futures fell 0.34 cents or 0.31 percent to $107.91 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
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