Oil Falls to 4-Month Low Near $91 a Barrel; U.S. To Tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Oil fell more than $4 to a four-month low near $91 a barrel Thursday after the U.S. government said it would tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of an international effort to boost supplies, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures fell $4.39 to finish the trading day at $91.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. It was the first decline in four days and the lowest closing price since Feb. 18.
The International Energy Agency said Thursday it would release 60 million barrels of emergency crude supplies, Bloomberg reported.
The U.S. and 27 allies said they will release the oil — 2 million barrels a day for 30 days — through IEA for just the third time in more than three decades, due to supply concerns related to the ongoing war in Libya, an OPEC producer whose output has been curtailed since February.
The Department of Energy it will release 30 million barrels of oil from the 727 million-barrel SPR as part of the release, Bloomberg said. The IEA is an energy policy adviser to 28 industrialized nations including the United States, Germany and Japan.
Oil has closed under $100 a barrel for the past two weeks. Also on Thursday, gasoline wholesale futures fell to a three-month low $2.86 a gallon, Bloomberg reported.
Diesel and gasoline pump prices have generally declined from two-and-a-half year highs since oil prices began receding in early May.
