Brent crude fell almost $2 yesterday towards $106 a barrel with traders and investors anticipating the resumption of oil exports from Opec-member Libya as a six-month civil war there appeared close to an end.
Rebels swept into the heart of Tripoli and crowds took to the streets to celebrate what they saw as the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s four decades in power, with government tanks and snipers putting up only scattered, last-ditch resistance.
Brent crude LCOc1 was down $1,99 to $106,63 at 0951 GMT. US crude CLc1 was up 60 cents to $82,86 a barrel after dropping to as low as $81,13 earlier.
The front-month September US crude contract expired yesterday.
“Brent is taking more of a battering but that’s only to be expected,” said Christopher Bellew, a trader at Jefferies Bache. “The divergence is just another graphic example of the dislocation between WTI and Brent.”
Libya pumped around 1,6 million barrels per day (bpd), nearly 2% of global supply, before the war cut output.
Most of Libya’s high-quality crude flowed to European refiners, but after Libyan exports ceased, tighter supply drove Brent to a two-year high of $127.02 in April. —Reuters
