Oil settles higher in volatile pre-holiday session

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States has been benchmarked for $ 75 billion in the US, and is quoted by the United States as saying:

Oil rallied early in the session on supply, then slid as traders booked profits ahead of the July Fourth holiday in the United States, and bet that global supply shortages would not persist as long as expected. Crude pared its losses late in the session, turning positive on market sentiment that supply disruptions would not resolve faster than previously expected.

U.S. CLc1 crude oil was up 20 cents at $ 74.14 a barrel, rebounding from a low session of $ 72.73 a barrel. In early trade, the contract rose to $ 75.27, to 3-1 / 2-year high.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 46 cents at $ 77.76 a barrel, after trading as low as $ 76.67 and as high as $ 78.85.

The early gains came after Iran appeared to threaten the shipments of the Middle East Gulf if Washington pressed ahead with sanctions. U.S. crude rose above $ 75 a barrel for the first time since 2014.

Prices may be overblown, said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. He also said traders could be moving to liquidate bullish positions.

Pressure to liquidate may have accelerated ahead of the U.S. holiday on Wednesday, said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital in New York.

Traders said supply disruptions could be short lived as OPEC and allied producers ramp up output.

The United Arab Emirates is ready to help alleviate possible oil shortages, "said UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei, who holds the OPEC presidency for 2018.

Syncrude Canada's 360,000 barrels per day oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alberta, hit by a power outage last month and likely to remain offline through July. A quicker restart at Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. crude.

Oil's early gains came after the president.ir quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as dismissing Washington's attempt to stop Iran's oil exports. While the comments were ambiguous, Iranian officials in the past have been attacked by the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping company, in retaliation for any hostile U.S. action.

Rouhani declined to provide a clarification.

"Just the threat … would add uncertainty and warrant some risk premium," Carsten Fritsch, senior commodities analyst at Commerzbank, told Reuters Global Oil Forum.

The American Petroleum Institute will report estimates for U.S. inventories at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday.

(To view a graphic on Major seaborne oil exports to Asia, click: reut.rs/2KD6Es5.)