SINGAPORE — Brent crude prices rebounded for a second straight session yesterday, rising above $99 per barrel on support from a weaker dollar and hopes that the world’s leading economies will take new action to tackle the eurozone’s debt crisis.
Brent crude for July delivery rose 37 cents to $99,22 a barrel, adding to a 42 cent gain in the previous session. Prices on Monday briefly hit a 16-month low of $95,63 before recovering. United States crude rose 65 cents to $84,63 a barrel.
“US and Brent oil futures improved slightly, but the market remains vulnerable to risk-off moves given the ongoing uncertainty from Europe,” said analysts at ANZ in a research note.
“With equity markets trading a tad higher and the US dollar pushed down to the lowest level in four sessions, there was a level of support for crude markets.”
The euro edged up further from last week’s two-year low against the dollar yesterday as sellers were tempted to pare back their huge bets against the currency ahead of a conference call by the Group of Seven financial policy makers.
Ministers and central bankers from the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France and Italy were to discuss the eurozone debt crisis later yesterday, in a sign of heightened global alarm about the strains in the 17-nation European currency area.
The darkening outlook over the world economy and its potential impact on global crude demand has taken the spotlight from lingering tensions between Iran and Western powers, which just three months ago helped push Brent to above $128.
“The softening of the oil price at the moment is a reflection of geopolitical issues being less dominant and lower demand coming into the picture,” Shell CEO Peter Voser told reporters at the World Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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Voser expected oil prices to weaken further in the second half of this year due to slowing demand. The United Nations nuclear watchdog and Iran will hold a new round of talks on Friday to try to reach an agreement to resume a long-stalled probe into Tehran’s atomic activities, the head of the IAEA said on Monday.
