Weak manufacturing data in Germany and France, and news that Greece could miss its 2011 deficit target, pressured prices in light, choppy trading in London.
US crude ended marginally higher as companies evacuated personnel from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and shut in 5.7 percent of production there ahead of a tropical disturbance over the central gulf.
Front-month Brent settled down 56 cents at $114.29 a barrel, after hitting a low of $113.61. US crude rose 12 cents to settle at $88.93 a barrel, after earlier touching a four-week high of $89.81 a barrel. Traders saw resistance around the $90 level for US crude.
“The stock market is lower and helping to pull US crude back and the weak German and French data weighed on Brent,“said Dan Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.
Wall Street fell as investors paused after a four-day rally and awaited Friday’s key payrolls report, despite mildly positive manufacturing and payroll data on Thursday.
Economic worry persisted in Europe, as German manufacturing activity grew at its slowest pace in nearly two years in August and French manufacturing activity contracted.
Oil trading volumes were light. By 2:55 p.m. EDT (1855 GMT), 487,200 US crude contracts were traded, 29 percent below the 30-day average. Brent crude volume was 420,200 contracts, 10.4 percent below the 30-day average.
Brent’s premium against US crude narrowed to $25.36 at the close, from $26.04 on Wednesday. The premium hit a record $26.69 on Aug. 19, according to Reuters data.
US crude has been at a discount to Brent in part due to the glut of supplies trapped in the US Midwest. A lack of pipelines has left growing production stranded at the Cushing storage hub without access to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Magellan Midstream Partners said it will convert a products pipeline in Texas into a crude pipeline, and reverse the flow to transport oil from the Texas Permian Basin south to refiners in Houston and Texas City. The conversion project, to be completed by mid-2013, should help relieve the glut at Cushing.
