West Texas
Intermediate crude slipped from a four-month high after the Energy Information
Administration said
WTI dropped
for the first time in three days. Crude supplies increased 973,000 barrels in
the week ended Feb. 14. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a gain of
2.25 million. Supplies at
Inventories
at Cushing, the delivery point for WTI futures, fell to 35.9 million barrels,
the lowest level since Oct. 25.
WTI for
March delivery, which expires today, fell 26 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $103.05
at 11:14 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures were at $103.12
before the report was released at
Brent for
April settlement declined 27 cents to $110.20 a barrel on the London-based ICE
Futures Europe exchange. Volume was 31 percent below the 100-day average. Brent
crude was at a premium of $7.53 to WTI for the same month on ICE. The spread
settled at $7.63 yesterday.