After the API yesterday reported a 3.65-million-barrel increase in crude oil inventories and WTI remained relatively stable, the EIA has thrown in an official build/decline in inventories sure to strengthen prices/rattle the market.
The agency reported an increase of 5.3 million barrels for the week to November 11, to a total of 490.3 million barrels.
Last week, the EIA reported another substantial hike in commercial inventories, of 2.4 million barrels, the second week of notable increases. Still, WTI proved resilient, not least because of president-elect Donald Trump's pledge to support the oil and gas industry, but also because the huge build from the previous week turned out to be a result of a correction in imports reporting.
Gasoline stockpiles at the end of last week rose by 700,000 million barrels, the EIA also said, with refineries processing 16.1 million barrels of crude daily, producing 10.2 million barrels of gasoline. The stockpiles of the most popular fuel were above the upper limit for this time of year, the EIA noted, without providing reference figures.
Benchmark oil prices had jumped earlier today on renewed hopes that OPEC will get it together and agree a production cut, but later in the day, European trading lost some of that momentum as traders took profits on the higher prices and stayed put in expectation of news from OPEC. Related: Trump Considers Oil Tycoon Harold Hamm for Energy Dept.
To make things more interesting for oil prices and everyone following them, yesterday Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Khalid Falih, warned the U.S. president-elect not to work towards eliminating oil imports because "blocking trade in any product is not healthy." Al-Falih added that the free trade energy culture currently in place benefits the United States because it has created a refining industry and ignited a job-hungry shale revolution.
Also yesterday, BP's CEO Bob Dudley admitted the oil market is the opposite of optimistic about OPEC's production cut deal, just like most industry observers. Dudley predicted that prices will stay at current levels if the deal falls through.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at US$47.43 a barrel and WTI was at US$46.29 a barrel.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More
Comments
The EIA is solely involved in the manipulation of oil prices by reporting fake paper oil supply or demand. They are notoriously wrong because they are not about accurate reporting and never have been. They are a agent of weaponry against oil exporters for not selling oil only in dollars. The EIA is totally fake component in the battle for USA hegemony. Go count the oil barrels yourself and you will know. The support of the petrodollar is the crux of the issue still.
The BDI cannot be faked and dry shippers are now rising as manufacturers are now ordering ingredients once again to build more products to sell for dollars in anticipation of much higher oil prices to come and that oil must still be paid for in dollars until the petrodollar system is completely dead. The SDR will also be used in 2018 for oil purchases. The BDI is a tell-tale sign of future oil prices rising like a homesick angel. See USD/SDR exchange rate...
You should be buying the dry shippers now and next to recover will be offshore oil in Brazil and the Eastern Gulf and also the Artic now that we have a Trump King. Bet on Trump limiting fracking due to water pollution and quake damage. Trump will stick with traditional oil extraction and even perhaps Gull Island oil when oil hit 175 around 2020.
The EIA - no one believes them anymore....lol
Warmest regards
JM