World oil prices traded flat on Friday (Saturday morning GMT) in a market that is still without a signal request or offer strong but reasonably suspenseful Greece debt talks and negotiations Iran nuclear program in Vienna.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude or West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in August was recorded down seven cents from Thursday to close at 59,63 u.s. dollars per barrel, and 23 cents above where prices stood a week ago. On London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude oil for August delivery increased six cents to ended at 63,26 u.s. dollars per barrel, and up 60 cents from the previous week.
"The market has looked apathetic and rather tired, so we see a bit of short-covering ahead of the weekend," says Matt Smith of Clipper Data.
"Sentiment about Greece ebbs and flows," he said, as pressure increases on Friday for Athens received what appears to be the end of Europe's prosposal to funding requirements.
Greece desperately needs a bigger bailouts to pay a loan of 1.5 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) to the IMF on Tuesday, but has been repeatedly rejected certain reforms demanded by creditors. "If there is a resolution, it would be positive for the euro, and crude oil markets," Smith said.
The market was also waiting to see if Iran and major world powers reach agreement on Tehran's nuclear program restrictions at the end of the month, which would allow Western Nations to remove sanctions, opening up more crude oil Iran entered the international market. The effort to complete the Pact still stuck on several issues, diplomats from both sides said Friday when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Vienna for talks over the weekend.
