Brent Crude Firm On Drop In US Oil Inventories, Iran Threat

Brent oil rose on July 4, driven higher by a threat from an Iranian commander and a drop in U.S. crude inventories for the second week in a row caused by an outage at a Canadian facility.

The price was near session highs above $78 a barrel after an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said he was ready to prevent regional crude exports if Iranian oil sales were banned by the U.S..

Brent crude futures were up 5 cents at $77.81/bbl by 1431 GMT, while U.S. crude futures were down 24 cents at $73.90/bbl, paring gains after rallying by as much as 1.2% on July 3.