“The huge crude-oil build [reported by the API] weighs on oil prices along with mediocre Chinese economic data…which keeps alive the fear of a growth slowdown in the huge country”, said Michael Poulsen, oil analyst at Global Risk Management.
Advertisement
USA crude futures extended their losses into a third session and hit a more than two-month low on Friday, dragged down by a relentless climb in oil stockpiles that has triggered a 10 percent drop in prices since the start of November. With supplies of winter fuels also plentiful, oil-market bears may choose not to hibernate.
Internationally traded Brent crude futures were at $44 a barrel, down six cents. Still, the contract remained close to August lows.
There were also a few notable oil-price forecasts this week, including the EIA’s lowered projection for 2016 average oil prices by $2 per barrel to $56 per barrel.
Iraq cut its official selling price of Basra Heavy BASH-OSP-N to the United States to a discount of $5.85 a barrel versus the USA sour crude benchmark for November, the lowest since it began selling the grade earlier this year, while cutting Basra Light BAS-OSP-N by 50 cents for October.
Daily Brent prices have ranged between $45 a barrel and $53 a barrel since the beginning of September.
The IEA, in its Monthly Oil Market Report, said that ballooning global stockpiles of crude and oil products could increase the overhang into next year.
The IEA said global demand growth is forecast to slow to 1.2 million barrels a day in 2016 after surging to 1.8 million barrels a day this year. In another sign of oversupply, a traffic jam of about 40 oil tankers has emerged along the US Texas coast.
Among the products, gasoline supplies fell by 2.1 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 400,000 barrels last week, the EIA said. OPEC ministers will meet on December 4 in Vienna to review their current policy.
Advertisement
The World Energy Outlook, released Tuesday, found that demand growth will increase each year by around 900,000 barrels per day until 2020. Diesel futures fell 3.88 cents, or 2.6%, to $1.4477 a gallon.
