Brent settles up four percent, riding equities rally; US crude down

Brent crude settled up 4 percent on Tuesday as strength in stock markets helped the global oil benchmark recoup the bulk of its losses from the previous session. US crude fell slightly in volatile trade, reopening from Monday's US markets closure for the Labour Day holiday to news of refinery outages. The divergence between Brent and US crude could grow if weekly crude inventories cited on Wednesday by industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) turns out to be higher than expected by the market. Analysts polled by Reuters expect US crude stockpiles to have risen by 200,000 barrels for the week ended September 4.
API's weekly inventory report, usually due on Tuesdays, will be issued on Wednesday this time due to Monday's Labour Day holiday. The official report on weekly stockpiles, due on Wednesdays from the US Energy Information Administration, will be delayed till Thursday. Brent rose early on Tuesday as European equity markets took off on bullish second-quarter euro zone growth and stellar German exports data. Gains in Brent accelerated in New York after the European equities rally extended to Wall Street.
London-traded Brent settled up $1.89 at $49.52 a barrel. It fell $1.98 in the previous session. Offsetting some of the bullish sentiment in Brent was China's mixed data on crude imports for August. The data showed a 6 percent gain year-on-year and 10 percent rise for the first eight months, but a 13 percent slide from July. Also weighing on Brent was the growing potential for Iran to flood the oil market with more supply as the Obama administration gained further congressional support in its campaign to lift nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran crude exports.
US crude settled down 11 cents, or almost a quarter percent, at $45.94 a barrel. It had fallen almost $2 at one point. US crude was weighed by the closure of the largest crude distillation unit at Exxon Mobil Corp's 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, on Sunday due to steam generation failure. Valero Energy Corp was also shutting a 45,000-bpd hydrocracking unit at its 335,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, sources familiar with the plant's operations, said on Tuesday. On Monday, Phillips 66 shut down a fluid catalytic cracker at its 314,000-bpd refinery in Wood River, Illinois. The gasoline-making unit is expected to restart within 48 hours, a source familiar with the plant's operations said.