Brent crude prices dip on oversupply

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices dipped in early Asian trade on Thursday as ongoing oversupply weighed on markets, but prices remained within a narrow range in place since late April.

Front-month Brent crude futures have seen numerous days of erratic price rises and falls as contradicting views of a tightening oil market and concerns of ongoing oversupply take turns in dominating daily sentiment, although the rises and falls have largely been in a $4 price range between $64-68 per barrel since April 23.

In early Thursday trading, supply concerns dominated, with Brent down 5 cents at $64.98 per barrel at 0109 GMT, and U.S. crude dropping 15 cents to $58.82.

 

"Increased focus on the supply side is likely to keep prices in check in the short term," said ANZ bank.

The dip followed a bounce in prices on Wednesday as a stock draw in the United States and a tightening Asian market lifted the market, while prices saw steep falls on Tuesday after analysts lowered their price forecasts due to ongoing oversupply.

Part of the problem in gauging the extent of oversupply in global oil markets is that market watchers are struggling to reliably count barrels that are currently being traded and stocked, with some estimates showing over 100 million barrels that are unaccounted for in international statistics.

Despite this, the consensus seems to be that the global market has been oversupplied by between 1.5 million and 2.5 million barrels per day since the start of the year.

(Editing by Joseph Radford)