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Brent steady above US$61 as WTI falls further

Last updated: 12:53 26 Feb 2015 GMT, First published: 13:53 26 Feb 2015 GMT

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Brent crude remained above US$61 on Thursday as focus remains on market fundamentals.

On one hand, OPEC increasingly sees positives in terms of consumption and most recently Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said demand is growing.

At the same time, however, in America at least, there is little sign of the crude oil surplus subsiding.

Yesterday, stats from the US Energy Department revealed the seventh straight weekly increase in crude stockpiles, with another 8.4mln barrels added to the glut which now stands at 434mln barrels.

In London trading, the gap between Brent and WTI stretched to more than US$11.

Brent dipped about 0.5% to US$61.25 whilst West Texas Intermediary futures fell more than 2% to less than US$50 per barrel.

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