Stronger dollar drives oil prices below $95 per barrel
NEW YORK - Reuters
A motorcyclist fills up at a petrol station in Hefei, east China’s Anhui province.AFP photo
Oil prices slid on May 14 as the dollar strengthened against the euro on mounting worries over Greek politicians’ inability to form a government.New York’s main contract West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in June closed at $94.78 a barrel, down $1.74 from Friday. Earlier the benchmark WTI contract hit $93.63, its lowest intraday level since December 19.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for June dropped 69 cents to settle at $111.57 a barrel, after earlier sinking to an almost four-month low of $110.04. In the past two weeks, New York’s WTI contract has lost about $10.
“Greece,” said Tom Bentz at BNP Paribas, explaining the reason behind the weakness on the market. “They failed to come away with an agreement for a coalition government and markets are just worried that Greece could quit the eurozone,” Bentz said.
Oil market sentiment also dampened by Saudi Arabia’s call for crude prices to fall further. “We need to get prices at a level around $100. Now, it is still high,” Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi was quoted as saying over the weekend by Dow Jones Newswires.
He was referring directly to Brent crude, the most widely traded oil contract worldwide. Speaking to reporters in Australia, the Saudi oil minister added that global crude stocks were likely to increase ahead of an anticipated seasonal rebound in demand starting from July. “It is very important to recognize that supply today is 1.3 million to 1.5 million barrels per day over demand, which is good. It is going into inventory and bringing inventory up -- that should give comfort to consuming countries,” he said.
