Oil prices stable

Oil prices were stable on Thursday as a US stock draw tightened the market while Asia's economies showed new signs of weakness. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $47.13 per barrel at 0430 GMT, virtually unchanged from their previous close, while Brent was up 6 cents at $49.81 per barrel. That followed a price jump of as much as 6 per cent in the previous session when data from the US Energy Information Administration showed the largest crude drawdown since February 2014 at the Cushing.  US crude prices have risen more in recent weeks than globally traded Brent futures, owing largely to Asia's weakening economies as well as rising output from West Africa and the North Sea. This has narrowed the WTI discount on Brent by almost 70 per cent since mid-August to around $2.20 per barrel, according to Reuters.

--Shuvo--