Crude oil futures were largely steady in mid-morning Asian trade on April 1 as prices consolidated after US President Joe Biden’s announcement of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release sent crude prices diving more than $5/b overnight.
At 10:19 am Singapore time (0219 GMT), the ICE June Brent futures contract was up 6 cents/b (0.06%) from the previous close at $104.77/b, while the NYMEX May light sweet crude contract was down 16 cents/b (0.16%) at $100.12/b. The Biden administration will release an unprecedented 1 million b/d from the US SPR for the next six months as part of efforts to rein in gasoline prices that have soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the White House said March 31. The announcement sent NYMEX crude prices sliding overnight, with the front-month contract settling down 7% and ICE Brent crude down 3.2%. […]