Oil steady as US output peak counters Middle East concerns

Hong Kong - Oil steadied near $57 a barrel in New York as data showing US crude output at the highest in at least three decades countered concerns sparked by a political purge in top exporter Saudi Arabia.

US output expanded for a third week to 9.62 million barrels a day, the highest in weekly Energy Information Administration data going back to 1983. Crude inventories rose 2.24 million barrels last week, compared with a 2.45-million drop forecast in a Bloomberg survey.

Oil has advanced about 20% since the start of September on signs the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies will extend output cuts past March. The arrest of more than 10 princes as well as dozens of officials and businessmen in an anti-corruption probe in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de-facto leader, has added to price gains.

“Geopolitics cannot undo the post-supercycle oil order,” said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer in Zurich.

West Texas Intermediate for December delivery was at $56.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 2 cents, at 11:16. Total volume traded was about 26% below the 100-day average. Prices settled 39c lower at $56.81 on Wednesday, after soaring 1.3% as multiple platforms  suspended operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Brent for January settlement slipped 9c to $63.40 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, after falling in the past two sessions. The global benchmark crude was at a premium of $6.37 to January WTI.

Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the biggest US oil-storage hub, rose by 720 000 barrels to 64.6 million, the EIA said onWednesday. Gasoline supplies fell a third week to 209.5 million barrels.

Oil-market news:

ConocoPhillips expects its capital spending to average about $5.5bn a year in the next three years, it said on Wednesday. That would be $1bn more than what the company has forecast for its budget this year.

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