Oil Retreats After Biggest Monthly Gain This Year

Brent crude declined, trimming its biggest monthly gain since August amid speculation that continuing violence in Iraq won’t disrupt supply from OPEC’s second-largest oil producer. West Texas Intermediate also fell.

Brent futures slid as much as 0.7 percent in London, curbing their advance in June to 2.9 percent. The Russian military is helping prepare Iraq’s air force to recapture areas of the country’s north held by Islamist militants. Fighting hasn’t spread to the south, home to more than three-quarters of its crude output. Iraq’s oil production was stable at 3.3 million barrels a day in June, according to JBC Energy GmbH.

“The geopolitical tensions that have been propping up prices recently are moving into the background with facts taking over,” Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said by phone. “For instance, the positive surprise in export and production in southern Iraq last week and the absence of new risks.”

via Bloomberg

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