West
Texas Intermediate advanced to the highest price in three weeks as a government
report showed that crude stockpiles fell at Cushing, Oklahoma. Brent oil rose.
Futures
climbed for a third day. Inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for WTI
futures, shrank 592,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information
Administration said. Total inventories increased. Brent rose on concern that
escalating tension in Ukraine will disrupt global energy supplies.
“Cushing
is what’s moving the market,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the
Price Futures Group in Chicago. “You still have the ongoing crisis in Ukraine
that’s providing some background support.”
WTI for
June delivery increased 93 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $102.63 at 10:48 a.m. on
the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising to $102.65, the highest intraday
price since April 22. The volume of all futures traded was 16 percent above the
100-day average for the time of day.
Brent for June settlement, which expires tomorrow, gained 71 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $109.95 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Volume was 29 percent above the 100-day average. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $7.32 to WTI, compared with $7.54 yesterday.