Crude oil futures jumped to Rs 3,054 per barrel on September 4 as participants increased their long positions due to upcoming refinery maintenance and end of summer driving season which put pressure on prices.

Tapan Patel- Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities said, “Crude oil prices have kept to their lower trading range on demand concerns over lower refinery runs and expectations of slower imports from China.”

“Weakness in the equity market, mixed US economic data, improving production in the Gulf of Mexico and Iraq’s signal that it may seek extension for an additional production cuts are factors that are keeping the gains in check. We may see further decline only if US jobs report disappoints significantly”, Ravindra Rao, VP- Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities, said.

In the futures market, crude oil for September delivery touched an intraday high of Rs 3,061 and a low of Rs 2,999 per barrel on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX). So far in the current series, black gold has touched a low of Rs 2,943 and a high of Rs 3,285.

Crude oil futures for September delivery gained Rs 10, or 0.33 percent, to Rs 3,054 per barrel at 15:26 hours IST on a business turnover of 4,150 lots. The same for October delivery edged higher by Rs 14, or 0.45 percent, to Rs 3,093 per barrel on a business volume of 77 lots.

The value of September and October’s contracts traded so far is Rs 729.45 crore and Rs 2.23 crore, respectively.

Patel expects oil prices to trade sideways to up for the day with support for MCX September Crude Oil futures at Rs 2,990 and resistance at Rs 3,090.

West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.06 percent at $41.81 per barrel, while Brent crude, the London-based international benchmark, was up 0.95 percent to $44.49 per barrel.