SINGAPORE-oil prices hovered above $ 91 a barrel Friday in Asia after a sharp drop the day before when the IEA announced the release of emergency supplies of crude.
Landmark oil for August delivery was up 20 cents to $ 91.22 barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for delivery in August fell 53 cents to $ 106.73 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Crude fell $4,39 to settle at $ 91.02 Thursday after the International Energy Agency said it will make available 60 million barrels for a period of 30 days, of which half will come from the strategic petroleum reserve of the United States.
Analysts said that the move probably reflects the growing concern that global economic slowdown and high oil prices accelerated exacerbate inflation and tepid consumer demand.
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the u.s. economy is weaker than previously forecast and lowered growth estimates this year GDP to 2.9 percent from 3.3 per cent.
The IEA move "can alleviate concerns of tightening supply and demand and cause additional pressure of falling oil prices in the short term," ANZ Bank said in a report. "The softening of oil prices can be a significant advantage to boost global economic growth through the second half of the year."
The release of reserves comes also after OPEC decided not to increase production quotas at a meeting earlier this month.
Some observers were puzzled by the timing of IEA crude movement because he had already fallen by close to $ 115 on May 2 and Libya's 1.6 million barrels per day of oil output have been closed since February.
"IEA Announcement seems to be nothing more than a timely public relations stunt designed to punish speculators," said Richard Soultanian of NUS. "The impact will be short-lived and the markets quickly will return back to the model followed in recent months, which is closely following the movements of the dollar of the United States."
When the dollar gains, crude oil tends to fall because a stronger currency makes American raw materials like oil more expensive for investors with other currencies. When the dollar weakens, crude prices usually go.
The euro was steady at $ 1.4269 on Friday after falling Thursday.
In other Nymex trading in July, contracts, heating oil rose 1.3 cents per $2,79 a gallon, while gasoline dropped 0.5 cents per $2,83 a gallon. Natural Gas futures fell 0.2 cents per $ 4.19 to 1,000 cubic meters.
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