Oil prices inch up despite concerns about outcome of Eurozone meeting on Greek debt crisis

22-Jun-15

Brent crude for August delivery inched up to US$63.1, after dipping as much as 52 cents when Asian markets opened. Front month US crude inched up to US$59.6 a barrel, after finishing the previous session down 84 cents. As per Reuters, oil prices nudged higher in Asia after initially falling; on concerns about the outcome of a eurozone meeting on the Greek debt crisis and continuing worries about global oversupply, as per Reuters. Prices rebounded from early lows after a European Commission official tweeted the latest proposal from Greece was a "good basis for progress" in Monday's talks. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered a new reforms package to foreign creditors on Sunday in an effort to avoid default this month on 1.6 billion euros in debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund. Worries over high domestic US oil production, which has held around 9.6 million barrels a day - the highest level since the early 1970s, still weighed on oil prices. US oil producers added a rig each in the Permian and Bakken shale basins last week, fuelling worries over high domestic oil output, even as the total number of active US rigs fell last week, data on Friday showed.