Oil sags ahead of US crude stockpiles report

In this file photo taken with a long exposure, a pumping unit sucks oil from the ground near Greensburg, Kan. AP FLE PHOTO

SINGAPORE—Oil prices slipped in Asian trade Wednesday as investors await the release of a weekly US stockpiles report, looking for clues about demand in the world’s biggest crude consumer, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for delivery in August, was down 32 cents at $95.00 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for August shed 20 cents to $101.06.

“There’s hardly been any movement and trading seems to be going sideways ahead of the US stockpiles report later today,” Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, told Agence France-Presse.

Lee Chen Hoay, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore, said Brent crude will continue to be supported above the $100 threshold in the short term.

The weekly data from the US Energy Information Administration is expected to show domestic inventories fell 1.7 million barrels for the week ended June 21, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts.

Demand traditionally surges in the summer season, when Americans take to the roads for their holidays.