Oil sales reach their highest level in three years as crisis in Libya tightens supply

U.S. crude traded near the highest in three and a half years, the disruption of Libyan ports and the fall of US stocks heightening fears of a tightening of supply

. Oil stocks have fallen the most since September 2016, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday, as some buyers of Iranian crude oil were increasingly under pressure from President Donald Trump to halt imports into India. from the Persian Gulf. A dissident faction of the National Oil Corp. Libyan ordered the arrest of eastern ports placed under his control by a militia leader.

"We envision a near future where the risk of supply will bear the price," said Ole Sloth Hansen. , Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank A / S in Copenhagen. "We have seen before the major impact that Libya can have on the market.Europe may have to supply oil to different places by combining Iranian sanctions and the risk of falling production. Libyan. "

Prices have been trending upward as the Trump administration seeks to deter oil purchases in Iran. -the largest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Efforts to isolate and impede the Islamic Republic have overshadowed Saudi Arabia's plan to raise production in the following weeks OPEC agreement to relax production ceilings. New York Mercantile Exchange, up 10 cents, at 10:54 in London. The total volume was 25% lower than the 100-day average. The contract rose from $ 2.23 to close at $ 72.76 on Wednesday, the highest settlement since November 2014.

The gap between WTI futures and the September contract s & # 39; is expanded for a seventh day to $ 1.55 in New York. The Brent futures contract for the August settlement rose 33 cents to $ 77.95 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Wednesday prices climbed from $ 1.31 to $ 77.62. September's most active contract was 35 cents higher than $ 77.81

The global benchmark was traded at a $ 5.10 premium to WTI for August, after [19659009] close fence since April Wednesday. The spread has plummeted since June 7 to 11.43 dollars, the widest since February 2015.

In Libya, the National Oil Corp. Eastern Benghazi ordered the stop of exports of Es Sider, the largest terminal in the country. as well as Ras Lanuf, Zueitina, Brega and Hariga, according to the company leader Faraj Said. Forces loyal to militia commander Khalifa Haftar gave the eastern NOC control of the terminals earlier this month.

The internationally acclaimed NOC in Tripoli said that it was confident that the organization's is not able to export the crude. Domestic production has dropped to 700,000 barrels per day, compared with about 1 million barrels a day.

In the United States, domestic inventories fell by 9.89 million barrels last week, according to US government data. This is a surprise drop from the 3 million barrel drop expected in a previous Bloomberg poll. Inventories at the Cushing storage facility in Oklahoma also fell by about 2.7 million barrels last week, while exports increased to 3 million barrels per day for the first time. Despite concerns over a bottleneck in the Permian region the considerable gap of $ 11 Brent-WTI in early June likely played a significant role in the surge in exports, said Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific Manager, Oanda Corp. "Meanwhile, supplies will continue to be tight in North America, and without a doubt the markets are once again plagued by huge supply uncertainties." The bulls are back in charge. "[19659003] Meanwhile, some buyers of Iranian crude oil on the world's major oil market, such as the Japanese company Fuji Oil Co. and Formosa Petrochemical Corp., are planning to stop imports from Iran. want their allies to stop all crude oil imports from the country by the November 4 deadline.