Oil prices trickled down on Thursday after a planned general strike by Nigerian workers, which could have affected the country’s oil industry, was called off at the last moment.
The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery fell 19 cents to $28,54 per barrel in early deals.
New York’s benchmark light sweet crude November contract lost 17 cents to $29,64 per barrel in out-of-hours electronic trade.
Nigeria’s all-out strike over increased fuel prices had been due to start at midnight on Wednesday, but only shortly before this deadline the country’s main labour union announced that a deal had been reached with the government.
”The government and the marketers have now agreed to reverse the [fuel price] increases that were imposed unilaterally on October 1 to the old levels,” Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, told reporters.
This was the primary market mover, analysts said.
”Brent crude extended losses this morning on news that Nigeria’s labour unions have called off their nationwide strike,” analysts from the Sucden brokerage said in a note to clients.
However, the effect on prices was limited.
”Price reaction has been muted to the ending of the strike since only a small likelihood of a disruption to Nigerian oil exports had been priced in by the market,” said Kevin Norrish from Barclays Capital.
The fall was also lessened by the fact that prices had dropped sharply the previous day on the back of a bigger-than-expected increase in United States stockpiles of crude oil.
Weekly figures from the US Department of Energy showed a 5,4-million barrel rise in crude oil inventories to 286.2-million barrels last week.
Overall inventories are still well down on the average for this time of year, but the weekly jump was larger than anticipated by the market. — Sapa-AFP