London Brent crude oil prices increase

22/10/2009

London Brent crude oil for December delivery traded at $79.70, an increase of a cent, at 12:14 Sydney time on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, reports Bloomberg.

Yesterday the commodity had increased by $2.45 - 3.2 per cent - to reach $79.69.

Ben Westmore, an energy and minerals economist at National Australia Bank in Melbourne, said: "Gasoline and distillate stocks dropped. There was also a bit of a weaker dollar."

He added that in the coming months, if draw-downs in the products continued to be seen, then it is likely that in trend terms there could be a move north.

Information from the US Energy Department showed that distillate stockpiles, a category that included heating oil and diesel, decreased by 784,000 barrels to 169.9 million.

The fall had been anticipated with a Dow Jones Newswires survey earlier this week predicting an 800,000 barrel decrease.