Oil prices moved modestly higher Monday due to weakness in the US dollar and strong prices for refined petroleum products.
Prices of the benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures for February delivery rose 10 cents to settle at $93.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In London, prices of Brent futures jumped nine cents to settle at $111.40 a barrel.
It was a relatively quiet day in the oil market with few major headlines garnering attention and the release of US oil inventories not taking place until Wednesday.
Bolstering oil prices was the weakness of the dollar Monday, said Matt Smith, an analyst at Schneider Electric. Oil, which is traded in dollars, frequently moves in an inverse fashion to the dollar.
Crude prices were also supported by higher prices of refined products, noted John Kilduff, a trader with Again Capital. Kilduff pointed to a recent outage at a Motiva oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas as supportive of prices.
Besides Wednesday’s weekly oil inventory report, the oil market is looking ahead to Tuesday’s release of the Department of Energy’s short-term energy outlook.
Reuters
