Crude oil futures were on track for their biggest weekly loss in more than two months as swelling stocks weighed on the market.
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Us crude (CLc1) finished down $1.01 at $40.74, losing $3.65 on the week.
US crude oil inventories remain near levels not seen for this time of year in at least the last 80 years, the Energy Information Administration said.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 11 cents at $47.30 a barrel.
Benchmark United States crude futures were at US$41.47 (RM181.68) a barrel at 01.39am, down 28 cents from yesterday, when prices tumbled 4 per cent on the back of rising United States stocks.
“Although global oil demand growth has been exceptionally strong year-to-date, the overall pace of supply side adjustment has been too slow to end a sustained increase in global inventories that we expect to persist through most of 2016”, British bank Barclays said.
Refinery crude runs rose by 302,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed, pushing output to its highest rate on record for this time of year.
The storage spike has sharply widened prompt crude’s discount to oil slated for later delivery as traders hold more in hopes of selling at higher prices later. The contract was at the lowest since August 27.
Fears that the largest oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation are still pumping around record levels were also weighing on the market.
“It’s another data point highlighting the oil glut in the US or the global markets for that matter”, said Chris Jarvis, analyst at Caprock Risk Management in Frederick, Maryland.
Tens of millions of barrels are sitting on tankers at sea, looking for buyers and threatening logistical paralysis. Producers in the US added two new oil-drilling rigs this week, oil-field-services firm Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday, demonstrating that a few companies can continue investing in new output even with prices near six-year lows. That contrasts with an expansion of 2.4 million bpd in 2014 in total non-OPEC output.
Supply from OPEC was little changed last month at 31.76 million bpd, as declines in Iraq and Kuwait countered gains in Libya, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, according to the report.
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Stockpiles in developed economies are 210 million barrels higher than their five-year average, exceeding the glut that accumulated in early 2009 after the financial crises, the organization said in a report.
