Publications
Partners
New York - Oil prices in London continued their steady slide on Tuesday amid a flush market and little upside to the current demand picture.
But US prices were stable, allowing a further narrowing of the price gap between the two global benchmarks.
London's main contract, Brent North Sea crude for October delivery, lost $1.04 to end at $99.16 a barrel, its lowest since April 2013.
In New York, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October edged up nine cents to $92.75 a barrel.
The easing of threats to supply in Iraq and Libya, and slightly alleviated tensions in Ukraine, removed some buying pressure from the market.
"Brent is continuing on the downward trajectory that it has followed since mid-June despite the geopolitical unrest - after all, so far these risks have had little impact on the short-term supply situation," said Commerzbank analysts in a note.
"Indeed, the once-again fragile ceasefire appears to be giving rise for the first time in months to some sense of calm in the conflict in Ukraine."
Industry analyst Pira Energy suggested prices could ease further due to generous supplies on the market.
After cutting its price for crude last week, it noted, leading exporter Saudi Arabia is still not fully competitive.
"Even with the reduction, Saudi barrels remain less competitive than like US domestic grades by about $2 to $3 per barrel," it said.
Sucden analyst Myrto Sokou said the strong dollar is weighing on prices.
"If crude prices continue their sharp downtrend in the coming trading sessions, we could expect an imminent response/action from Opec members regarding the current oil production levels," Sokou said.
Opec, which holds its next scheduled production meeting in Vienna on November 27, accounts for about one-third of global oil production.
