Brent hovers near $98, US oil slips

Brent crude futures seesawed near $98 per barrel on Thursday while US oil prices fell, as tighter North Sea supplies and investor momentum also pushed Brent's premium to a two-year peak. Brent fell back from an intraday high of $98.95 after US jobless claims and durable goods data showed the economic recovery was erratic, and on remarks from Kuwaiti's oil company chief that Opec may need to increase production as high oil prices threaten the economy.
In London, ICE Brent crude for March fell 6 cents to $97.85 a barrel, at 12:58 pm EST (1758 GMT). US crude oil for March delivery fell 92 cents, or 1.05 percent, to $86.41 a barrel. Additional technical selling was triggered by a brief break below a key support level just above $86, but prices later traded back above it.
"The jobless claims data raises significant doubt about the recent embrace of the notion of strong economic recovery. The durable goods report did not help the bullish case either," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC. "Also, with Kuwait suggesting a possible output raise, on the heels of the recent (Saudi Arabia's oil minister) Naimi comments, more oil will likely be hitting the market from the Opec - officially or not."
Brent was supported by news that Statoil reduced rates at its 113,000-barrel per day Troll oil and gas platform for what it said would be under a week of work, even as two other North Sea fields resumed production. Ample US crude stocks, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub, delivery point for US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude, have helped boost the premium of ICE Brent crude to WTI, pushing it to more than $12 intraday on Thursday, its highest since January 2009.
Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma terminal rose by 862,000 barrels week-on-week due to a fall in refinery utilisation and rising imports, according to Wednesday's weekly report from the Energy Information Administration. Stocks up to January 25 dipped by nearly 500,000 barrels, according to mid-week data from Genscape.
Farouk al-Zanki, Kuwait Petroleum Corp's chief, told Reuters on Thursday that he is concerned that current high oil prices may contribute to the start of another global downturn as they did nearly three years ago. Supporting the notion of more Opec supply forthcoming, seaborne oil exports by Opec, excluding Angola and Ecuador, will rise by 330,000 bpd in the four weeks to February 12, according to UK consultancy Oil Movements.