OIL Crude for January delivery was at $87.84 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 9 cents, at 2:46 p.m. Singapore time. The contract expires today. The more-actively traded February future slid 3 cents to $88.37. The volume traded for all contracts was 48 percent below the average of the past 100 days. Front-month futures rose 0.8 percent yesterday to $87.93, the highest close since Dec. 4.
Brent oil for February settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange was up 10 cents at $108.94 a barrel. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $20.57 to the corresponding WTI contract, from $20.44 yesterday