Oil prices declined yesterday in the last half hour of trading, after rising above US$50 a barrel earlier in the day. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark that trades within the range of T&T's light sweet crudes, fell 17 cents and ended that day at US$49.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The European benchmark, Brent North Sea crude, settled lower at US$59.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange
The latest downward movement followed speculation about a nuclear deal that could lift Iran's sanctions and boost its oil exports. Worries about high oil supplies were also promoted by reports of rising Libyan crude output and a firmer US dollar also weighed on Brent.
In earlier trading, Brent dropped US$2.11 to $60.47 a barrel in London, while WTI had added 69 cents to US$50.45 a barrel.
This was in contrast to the previous trading session on Friday when a volatile trading week ended with oil prices rebounding sharply. Brent's premium to WTI crude narrowed yesterday to around US$10 a barrel, after being as high as US$13 on Friday.