WTI Crude Declines a Second Day After Discount to Brent Narrows

---

West Texas Intermediate oil dropped for a second day. WTI��s discount to Brent in London narrowed to the smallest gap in seven weeks.

Futures fell as much as 0.4 percent in New York. U.S. crude supplies shrank by 3.43 million barrels last week as stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI, slid the 17th time in 18 weeks, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday. Brent crude closed yesterday at the lowest in almost a month as Libyan output continued to increase after protests ended at oil fields in the north-central regions.

WTI for July delivery declined as much as 45 cents to $102.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $102.30 at 9:24 a.m. Sydney time. The contract slid 2 cents to $102.64 yesterday. The volume of all futures traded was about 22 percent below the 100-day average. Prices are up 3.9 percent this year.

Brent for July settlement fell 42 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $108.40 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday. The European benchmark crude ended the session at a premium of $5.76 to WTI, the smallest gap since April 15.

Source : Bloomberg