Crude oil advanced for a fourth day on signs Europe and US will contain their debt crises, easing speculation demand for raw materials will suffer. "Greater optimism on containing sovereign debt issues, combined with an apparent backing away on the part of the IEA from an immediate further stock release, offers the opportunity for prices to break out of their recent range to the upside," Barclays Capital said in a report. Eurozone leaders announced €159 bilion of further aid for Greece last night. Barack Obama's plans to raise the US debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion before the 2 August deadline may also have boosted prices. The price of Nymex Crude stood at $117.81 per barrel this morning, according to BBC data, climbing steadily from a $116 dip last week. Last month, the the International Energy Agency (IEA) made the controversial move of injecting 60 million barrels of oil into the market to try and dampen escalating prices spurred by the Middle Eastern crisis. The IEA has only intervened in the oil market twice before, once during the Gulf War and also in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Oil dropped sharply following the IEA move to increase supply last month, by 5 percent or $6 to $108, but rebounded within a week, and has now recovered to the $117 mark. At the time, Tom Nelson, co-manager of the Guinness Global Energy fund, branded the IEA move as setting a "dangerous precedent", unlikely to be repeated. "I do not think it is likely," he told Investment Week. "Essentially this is a show of strength by the IEA, reminding OPEC they do not control the whole market." Oil prices hovered above toward $99 a barrel Friday after European leaders reached an aid deal aimed at stanching Greece's financial crisis. Benchmark oil for September delivery was flat at $99.13 a barrel by midafternoon European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 73 cents on Thursday. In London, Brent crude rose 24 cents to $117.75 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. European officials agreed to give Greece a second rescue package worth €109 billion ($155 billion) at an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday. They also boosted their rescue fund to make sure the crisis doesn't spread.
