Oil
futures settled at a two-month low Tuesday after the U.S. government
announced plans to sell millions of barrels of oil from its Strategic
Petroleum Reserve, as traders bet on a further weekly increase in crude
supplies.
December
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 78 cents, or 1.8%, to settle at
$43.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest
settlement since Aug. 27. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures
exchange lost 73 cents, or 1.5%, to $46.81 a barrel.
The
government had announced a “test drawdown and sale” of five million
barrels from the SPR in March 2014, but the last significant release was
in 2011, when the U.S. sold off 30 million barrels to offset lost
production from Libya. The SPR has capacity of 713.5 million barrels,
but currently holds about 695 million.
WTI oil prices have dropped for two straight weeks, dragging the prices of other energy products with them.
Traders will also be focusing on the Federal Reserve meeting, which ends Wednesday, for hints about the fate of interest rates.
Source: MarketWatch
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