Crude oil price dipped today after the Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory increase for the week to November 8.
At 2.2 million barrels, the increase extended a string of seven weekly inventory builds over the last eight weeks that added a total of more than 40 million barrels of oil to U.S. commercial inventories of crude oil.
Analysts had forecast an inventory build of 1.6 million barrels, while yesterday the American Petroleum Institute estimated a weekly inventory draw of half a million barrels. While modest, the draw was unexpected and helped to push prices higher in the absence of strong headwinds.
In gasoline, the EIA reported a build of 1.9 million barrels for the week to November 8, versus a 2.8-million-barrel decline a week earlier. Gasoline production last week averaged 10.2 million bpd, compared with 10 million bpd a week earlier.
In distillate fuels, the authority estimated a decline of 2.5 million barrels, compared with a 600,000-barrel drop a week earlier. Distillate fuel production averaged 5 million bpd, up from 4.9 million bpd a week earlier.
Prices have stabilized these past few days. On the one hand, they are being pressured by indications from OPEC that deeper production cuts are unlikely after the December meeting of the cartel and its partners. On the other, there seems to be growing optimism about a U.S.-Chinese trade deal that would remove a lot of the concern for future oil demand.
The latest World Energy Outlook by the International Energy Agency, however, has added gloom to the picture. The authority said it expected global demand for crude oil to peak around the mid-2020s and plateau by 2030, at around 106 million bpd.
At the time of writing Brent crude traded at $62.99 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands at $57.66 a barrel, both up from yesterday’s close albeit by less than a percentage point.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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