Commodities : Wednesday, Aug. 13, 1986 : Energy Prices Move Higher

Energy futures prices were mostly higher Wednesday, responding to a combination of factors indicating that the world’s oversupply of oil may be coming under some control.

Crude oil for delivery in September gained 40 cents a barrel before closing unchanged. The other contracts were all higher.

In some other markets, Treasury bond futures advanced strongly, soybeans declined sharply under a bearish government crop report, while corn was down only slightly despite a huge harvest forecast by the Agriculture Department.

Oil industry data released after the close of trading Tuesday showed sizable drops in gasoline and crude oil stocks “and were viewed as quite friendly by the market,” said Nauman Barakat, an analyst in New York with Smith Barney, Harris Upham. Also, Barakat said, there were unconfirmed reports that Iranian jets attacked an oil-producing region in northern Iraq in retaliation for an air attack Tuesday on oil installations in the Persian Gulf.

Oil prices also got a lift from further signs that the production control agreement put together recently by OPEC is holding together. Kuwait and Nigeria said Wednesday that they are taking steps to bring their production into line with the agreement when the quotas become effective Sept. 1.