(Adds comment, updates prices)
By Aaron Sheldrick
TOKYO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Thursday, stalling
a rally driven by a surprise fall in U.S. crude inventories that
added to bullishness over expectations progress on vaccines may
end the coronavirus pandemic and revive fuel demand.
Having spent the Asian trading day higher, Brent futures
were down 1 cent at $48.60 a barrel by 0746 GMT, after
rising around 1.6% in the previous session.
West Texas Intermediate crude was off by 4 cents at
$45.67 a barrel, after reaching a high of $46.09 earlier and
gaining 1.8% on Wednesday.
Both benchmarks have risen about 8% this week after
AstraZeneca said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine could be
up to 90% effective, adding to the potential armoury to end the
worst pandemic in a century.
"Despite a number of strong fundamentals rallying the
markets, especially vaccine development supporting oil, bearish
concerns remains," said Avtar Sandu, senior commodities manager
at Phillip Futures.
Lockdowns as the pandemic worsens, the rising number of rigs
employed in the United States, along with increased production
from Libya, were risk factors for bulls, he said.
U.S. oil stockpiles fell 754,000 barrels last week, data
showed. Analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a
127,000-barrel rise. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma,
delivery point for WTI, fell by 1.7 million barrels.
But gasoline demand for the week fell by 128,000 barrels per
day (bpd) to 8.13 million bpd, the lowest since
June.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has urged people to forgo big
family gatherings, wear protective masks and maintain social
distancing for the Thanksgiving holiday. But Americans are
defying pleas from officials to stay at home.
The United States has recorded 2.3 million new infections in
the last two weeks.
(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Himani Sarkar,
Richard Pullin and Barbara Lewis)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
