* Canada wildfire shuts crude capacity: http://tmsnrt.rs/1T6HcrN
* Surprise U.S. crude inventory draw pushed prices up
previous day
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, May 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell early on
Thursday, weighed by the gradual return of Canadian oil sands
production, reversing a sharp rise the previous day when the
U.S. government detailed an unexpected fall in crude
inventories.
International Brent crude futures were trading at $47.13 per
barrel at 0143 GMT on Thursday, down 47 cents, or 1 percent,
from their last settlement. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude futures CLc1 were down 38 cents or 0.8 percent at
$45.85.
Traders said the dips were largely a result of profit taking
following intra-day Brent price rises of up to $2.95 the
previous day.
"A lot of people think that yesterday's jump was a bit over
the top, so they've taken the profit while they could this
morning," said one oil trader.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on
Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories fell 3.4 million barrels
to 540 million barrels last week, compared with analysts'
expectations for an increase of 714,000 barrels and the American
Petroleum Institute's (API) reported build of 3.5 million
barrels in preliminary data issued on Tuesday.
The surprise draw in crude inventories was offset on
Thursday by an expected increase in Canadian oil sand crude
production following disruptions to over 1 million barrels of
daily production capacity due to wildfire.
"We were not totally surprised with the draw after the
shut-in in Canadian production," said Tariq Zahir, managing
partner at Tyche Capital Advisors in New York.
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Canada wildfire shuts crude capacity http://tmsnrt.rs/1T6HcrN
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