Oil on the back foot into the weekend

(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Brent crude was on the back foot on Friday after a positive week amid dollar strength. The US dollar strengthened - making oil more expensive for buyers - amid anticipation that the Greek debt talks will continue to stall. In London trading Brent was down around 1% at about US$64.50 while West Texas Intermediary futures dipped 1.4% to around US$60. Earlier in the week crude markets were buoyed by better than expected stockpile statistics in the United States. Weekly figures from the American Petroleum Institute showed that the crude surplus reduced by a larger margin than experts had predicted. According to API inventories reduced by 6.7mln barrels last week to 473mln. Corresponding and more closely followed inventory figures from the US Energy Department this afternoon reveal a 6.8mln barrel drop versus analyst expectations of just a 1.7mln barrel draw. America's Energy Information Administration yesterday downgraded forecasts for US oil production next year with a predicted 160000 barrel per day decline rather than an increase that was predicted by the prior forecast. Demand globally will this year increase by around 1.25mln barrel according to the EIA which slightly upgraded this forecast.