Brent crude rises, crude falls on the Nymex as US unemployment benefit claims rise to six month highs

14-Jan-11

Bent crude has steadied above US$98 even as US benchmark prices settled at US$92 on news of an increase in the country's jobless claims. Alaska's main oil pipeline will shut from Friday evening to install a bypass aimed at restoring oil shipments to full volumes. The line was shut following a leak last week, raising expectations that refiners in the US west coast would increase crude imports from the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. A series of production snags from Norway to Alaska has reinforced the view that a tightening of global oil markets will benefit waterborne Brent crude over WTI, a grade delivered at the landlocked storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma. US weekly initial unemployment benefit claims showed their biggest increase in six months, dragging down stock markets, even as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was hopeful about the recent improvement in the outlook, saying he now expects the economy to expand between 3-4% this year. Brent crude last traded above US$100 a barrel on October 1, 2008, the only year in which any front-month oil futures benchmark has surpassed that level.