KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - Oil firmed today after a government report showed a steep fall in US crude inventories due to shipping delays last week on the Gulf Coast.
The gains countered losses of around US$2 this week, triggered by mild winter weather that has cut heating demand in the world's top energy consumer.
US crude settled up 19 cents at US$60.53 a barrel after touching a one-month low of US$60.25 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude rose 15 cents to US$60.67.
Government data showed crude inventories in the United States fell by 8.1 million barrels last week, much steeper than the 1.8 million barrels that analysts polled by Reuters had expected. US crude inventories have fallen roughly 6 per cent in the past five weeks.
The fall came after fog caused intermittent delays for a week to tankers delivering crude to refiners on the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
"This big draw on crude is incredible and obviously due to the impact of fog-related dealys in the Gulf Coast," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.
Delays to imports made it difficult to measure how much a supply cut from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries had affected imports into the United States.
Opec agreed to cut 1.2 million barrels per day from supplies from Nov. 1 in an attempt to drain some of the world's relatively high oil inventories.
US petrol inventories rose 3 million barrels, much more than the 700,000 barrels analysts forecast. Distillate stocks rose 500,000 barrels, slightly above the 400,000 barrels expected by analysts.
Despite relatively mild weather, heating oil stocks fell 800,000 barrels.
US weather forecasters said on Wednesday that mild conditions were likely to continue throughout the winter.
Relative warmth has also cut fuel demand in Japan, the world's third biggest oil consumer, where stocks of kerosene for heating are more than a third higher than a year ago.
Oil prices have hovered within US$5 of US$60 a barrel for three and a half months, with analysts mixed on next year's outlook.
Some say Opec's moves to reduce output has stabilised the market and new flows of investment money could push prices higher early next year.
Others say a US economic slowdown and rising levels of non-Opec oil supply might pull prices down.
Iran's parliament passed a bill on Wednesday obliging the government to revise its level of co-operation with the IAEA nuclear watchdog and to "accelerate Iran's nuclear activities," after the United Nations approved the sanctions.
The move by Iran's parliament prompted the White House to say that further non-compliance by Tehran on its nuclear programme would only "worsen its situation" in the international community.
- REUTERS
