Oil prices fall on firmer U.S. dollar

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Thursday, pulled down as a firmer dollar outweighed a report of a decrease in U.S. crude inventories.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures () were at $61.12 a barrel at 0102 GMT, down 56 cents, or 0.9 percent, from their last settlement.

Brent crude futures () had dropped 50 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close to $64.92 per barrel.

The dollar rose to a more than one-week peak against a basket of other currencies () late on Wednesday, extending its recovery from last week, as minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting showed policymakers confident in the need to keep raising interest rates.

“The firming dollar continues to thwart investor sentiment despite the bullish inventory data,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA.

Since oil trading is conducted in dollars, a rise in the greenback makes fuel imports for countries using other currencies domestically more expensive, potentially curbing demand.

The firm dollar outweighed a reported fall in U.S. crude inventories.

The American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday reported an unexpected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories by 907,000 barrels to 420.3 million barrels for the week to Feb. 16.

“Improved pipeline infrastructure to the Gulf coast and the decreased supply via TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline, sent … inventories tumbling,” Innes said.

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