SINGAPORE: Crude sank in Asia Wednesday as a call by the Group of Seven nations for oil producers to increase output overrode US supply disruptions due to Hurricane Isaac, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, shed 52 cents to $95.81 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for delivery in the same month slipped 25 cents to $112.33 in the afternoon.
A call by the G7 industrial nations for oil producers to increase output interrupted a crude rally fuelled by US production facility closures due to Isaac, said IG Markets Singapore market strategist Justin Harper.
"The G7 seem a little late in making this request on oil producers as we could see subdued demand for the second half of the year, keeping energy prices contained," he told AFP.
G7 finance ministers said in a statement issued Tuesday that crude supply needed to be increased as higher prices posed "substantial risks" to the global economy.
They also suggested that leading industrial economies were ready to tap into global strategic oil reserves to keep price pressure down.
"We stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied," the statement said.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana and headed for New Orleans, seven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the "Big Easy" and killed 1,800 people on the US Gulf Coast.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.