WTI prices remain higher than Brent crude

Crude oil prices declined slightly Monday, with September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange down 17 cents to $76.85 per barrel in midafternoon trade, while Brent crude was down 60 cents to $75.66 per gallon on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline was also lower, falling a cent to $2.09 per gallon, while September heating oil was also down 1 cent to 2.09 per gallon, but September natural gas added 28 cents to $6.49 per million British thermal units.

Prices were lower as many analysts said they think that Wednesday’s inventory report from the US Energy Information Administration, due on Wednesday, will show more gains in gasoline and distillate stockpiles.

Precious metals prices were higher in New York after the US dollar weakened.

December gold was up $4.30 at around 1:30 p.m. to $676.60 per troy ounce, while September silver added 19 cents to $12.90 per troy ounce and October platinum gained 10 cents to trade at $1,286.80.

In base metals, September copper added 4 cents to $3.59 per pound in New York and was $85 higher to $7,835 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

A drop of 1,000 tonnes in LME warehouse inventories supported copper prices despite an announcement that production will resume at a mine in Chile where production had been interrupted due to worker protests.

Story link: WTI prices remain higher than Brent crude