The price of oil slipped to near US$103 a barrel yesterday as concerns over Russia's military advance into Ukraine eased, but the situation remained tense overall.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark US crude for April delivery was down 31 cents to US$103.02 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the Nymex contract fell US$1.59 to close at US$103.33.
Brent crude, used to set prices for international varieties of crude, was down 63 cents at US$108.67 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.Markets were also awaiting fresh data on US stockpiles of crude oil and refined products.Data for the week ending February 28 is expected to show a build of 1.5 million barrels in crude oil stocks and a draw of 1.5 million barrels in gasoline stocks, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday that crude stocks rose by 1.2 million barrels last week. The report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration–the market benchmark –was due to be released yesterday.