Crude oil prices slipped further away from recent highs on the possibility of the first gain in U.S. crude oil inventories this year.
Prices continued to pull back from recent highs Tuesday on signs that supply-side pressures were catching up with much-watched inventory metrics.
Prices reversed their long march upward on Monday following reports of hundreds of thousands of new Canadian barrels of oil flowing on the market from a project run by Suncor and French energy major Total, according to UPI report.
North American energy markets have been accelerating on the back of higher crude oil prices and Monday’s announcement followed reports of increased exploration and production activity in Canada and the United States.
Oil prices got a jolt in the arm last week on a weaker U.S. dollar, whose strength has an inverse relationship with commodities. That pressure eased last week, however, when U.S. President Donald Trump talked up the importance of a strong greenback.
The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was down 0.43 percent as of 9:10 a.m. EST to $68.90 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for the price of oil, was down 0.95 percent to $64.94 per barrel.
Phil Flynn, the senior market analyst for the PRICE Futures Group in Chicago, told UPI he remained optimistic in general, but said the “first crude oil supply build this year” could be pulling the price of oil back from the $70 threshold, though there was a general positive sentiment building throughout the U.S. economy.
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