Oil mixed in Asian trade

SINGAPORE – Oil was mixed in Asian trade Wednesday after the government in debt-ridden Greece survived a no-confidence vote and as investors awaited the results of a US central bank meeting.

New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for August delivery, fell 46 cents to $93.71 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August rose 31 cents to $111.26.

Jason Feer, a Singapore-based analyst at Argus Media, said the Greek government’s surviving of the no-confidence vote in parliament eased fears the country’s financial turmoil could worsen and spread across the rest of Europe.

“The WTI going up overnight was due to the Greek government surviving the vote of confidence without massive rioting,” he said.

“One of the things weighing on people’s minds is whether Greece would default as that would create more turmoil in the market.”

Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Socialist government beat the no-confidence vote tabled by the opposition, allowing them to pursue critical reforms needed to unlock vital new assistance from international creditors.

In a closing speech after three days of debate, Papandreou called for support “to avoid bankruptcy and keep Greece in the euro core.”

Athens now effectively has two weeks to convince its European peers that it will carry out long-delayed structural reforms and privatisations in order to secure badly needed bailout money before its funds run out in July.

The market was also awaiting the conclusion on Wednesday of a two-day meeting of the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), analysts said.

Fed policymakers were meeting amid signs of weakness in the world’s biggest economy – and biggest oil consuming nation – that are clouding prospects for withdrawal from a massive financial stimulus.

The FOMC was debating an eventual exit strategy from the support it has extended since the 2008 financial meltdown.