U.S. oil futures eke out modest gains, Brent crude slips

New York, Oct. Oct 29 (IANS) Oil prices settled mixed on Thursday, as investors assessed news on hope of renewed Iran nuclear talks.The West Texas Intermediate for December delivery added 15 cents to settle at 82.81 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for December delivery decreased 26 cents to close at 84.32 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, Xinhua news agency reported.The market reactions came after Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani on Wednesday announced through his Twitter account that Iran has agreed to resume negotiations over the nuclear agreement "before the end of November"."Even if the talks are resumed and turn out to be successful, it is still likely to be quite some time before any agreement is reached and Iranian oil exports return to the market," Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said on Thursday in a note.Traders also digested the U.S. fuel inventory data.U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 4.3 million barrels during the week ending October 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had expected U.S. crude supplies to show a 100,000-barrel decline.According to the EIA, total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2 million barrels last week, while distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.4 million barrels.
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