Oil eases as dollar recovers with Opec talking of extending its output curb for years
London — Oil prices eased on Wednesday, under pressure from a recovery in the value of the dollar from last week’s three-year lows and from an expected rise in US crude production. Brent crude futures were last down 13c at $65.12 a barrel by 3.05pm GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 28c to $61.51 a barrel. The premium of Brent over WTI widened to almost $3.60 a barrel, having neared its narrowest in six months on Tuesday as concern about a bottleneck of Canadian crude imports underpinned US futures. "A sense of harmony has returned this morning with both crude benchmarks ploughing a southerly furrow as the dollar gains further ground," PVM Oil Associates analyst Stephen Brennock said. The dollar rose against other major currencies, buoyed by the rise in short-term US government bond yields their highest in more than nine years and ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy-setting meeting, which may signal the pace of any...
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