Oil remains at $59 ahead of US fuel data

Oil prices steadied at around $59 early today, shrugging off an averted strike in Norway to concentrate on upcoming US weekly…

Oil prices steadied at around $59 early today, shrugging off an averted strike in Norway to concentrate on upcoming US weekly inventory data and persistent worries about a crunch on refined products.

US light sweet crude for August delivery was down 4 cents at $59.00 a barrel in early Asian trade.

Yesterday, the expired July contract hit a high of $59.70 a barrel, a record since the exchange started trade in 1983.

Prices have hit new highs in each of the last three trading sessions as fears of a possible producer-country supply disruption compounded concerns about a winter fuel crunch, prompting speculators to bet on a push above $60 a barrel.

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"This is short-term weakness," said David Thurtell, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "If there is a big fall in U.S. crude stocks, you'll expect the market to go up. If stocks rise, people will ignore it."

US weekly inventory data due for release later today are forecast to show a 1.7 million barrel drop in crude stocks - for a third successive week - as refineries run near full-throttle and imports fall.

Developments in major oil-producing nations over the past week have resurrected concerns about crude supplies, although a threatened strike by Norwegian offshore oil workers that had endangered about one million barrels per day (bpd) of output was averted late yesterday, industry officials said.

An alert at Western consulates in Nigeria and the surprisingly strong showing of a hardline candidate in Iran's first-round presidential election came into traders' focus, especially with OPEC already pumping nearly flat out.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been pumping near a 25-year high over the past two months in an attempt to cool prices, but insufficient refining capacity is at the heart of the problem, cartel officials have said.