Oil steadies, shrugging off Iran's seizure of tanker in Gulf

  • Oil initially rose more than 1% on Thursday after Iran said it had seized a foreign tanker in the Gulf, but prices gradually lost their gains as it emerged that the vessel had only a small cargo and was detained on Sunday for fuel smuggling.
  • Prices steadied by 1330 GMT with Brent crude LCOc1 futures up 1 cent at $63.67 a barrel, after hitting a session high of $64.46.
  • West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 futures were down 7 cents at $56.71 after the U.S. benchmark hit a session high of $57.32.
  • Iran said the vessel, which it did not identify, was smuggling fuel and had been carrying 1 million liters, or around 6,200 barrels, in the area of Larak Island and had 12 foreign crew 

(Source: Reuters)