Brent
crude held its gain after OPEC kept its production target unchanged and West
Texas Intermediate was little changed in New York amid speculation that U.S.
inventories dropped last week.
Futures
rose 0.3 percent in London as OPEC ministers in Vienna left the group’s output
ceiling unchanged at 30 million barrels a day. Crude stockpiles probably
dropped by 2 million barrels last week to 387.5 million, a Bloomberg News
survey shows before Energy Information Administration data today. In Iraq, a
breakaway al-Qaeda group took control of the city of Mosul and there were conflicting
reports about the situation in Baiji, home to the nation’s biggest refinery.
“There
were no surprises with OPEC but the deteriorating situation in Iraq could start
to have an effect at the margins,” Michael Hewson, a London-based market
analyst at CMC Markets, said by e-mail.
Brent
for July settlement gained 37 cents to $109.89 a barrel on the London-based ICE
Futures Europe exchange at 1:15 p.m. London time. Prices have decreased 0.8
percent this year.
WTI for
July delivery was at $104.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, up 11 cents. The volume of all futures traded was about 19
percent below the 100-day average for the time of day. The European benchmark
crude traded at a premium of $5.50 to WTI. The spread narrowed for a third day
yesterday to close at $5.17.