Crude oil prices ticked up today, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 6.3 million barrels for the week to September 1.
This compared with a massive decline of 10.6 million barrels for the previous week, which brought inventories to the lowest in eight months.
In fuels, the EIA estimated an inventory decline in gasoline and a build in middle distillates.
In gasoline, the EIA reported an inventory draw of 2.7 million barrels for the last week of August, which compared with a modest 200,000-barrel stock draw for the previous week.
Gasoline production stood at 9.8 million bpd, which compared with 10 million bpd for the previous week.
In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory increase of 700,000 barrels for the week to September 1, which compared with a build of 1.2 million barrels for the prior week.
Middle distillate production averaged 5 million barrels daily last week, virtually unchanged on a week earlier.
Oil prices, meanwhile, surged earlier this week after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they would extend their supply cuts until the end of the year, curbing global oil supply by a combined 1.3 million barrels daily.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at over $90 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at over $87 per barrel, both down from opening.
With the extension of the supply cuts while demand for oil remains robust, oil could top $100, reaching $107 per barrel by the end of next year, according to Goldman Sachs.
“Consider a bullish scenario where OPEC+ keeps the 2023 cuts…fully in place through end-2024 and where Saudi Arabia only gradually raises production,” analysts from the bank wrote in a report on Wednesday.
The series of sizeable declines in U.S. inventories have also contributed to analysts’ bullish expectations and actual price movements.
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"We have pretty low crude supplies in the U.S., with several weeks of big crude oil draws pushing prices up," Mizuho energy futures director Bob Yawger told Reuters this week.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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