US commercial crude inventories increased by 7.8 million barrels last week, maintaining a total USA commercial crude inventory of 502.7 million barrels.
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“We’ll see higher oil prices” with “supply and demand tightening in the second half of the year”, Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
U.S. crude stocks rose by 3.8-million barrels to 500.4-million in the week to January 29, data from industry group, the American Petroleum Institute, showed on Tuesday. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 3.5 million barrels in crude inventories.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 777,000 barrels, versus expectations for a 1.1 million barrels drop, the EIA data showed.
By 0240 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in March was down 49 cents, or 1.46 percent, to $33.13. Why anyone really thought that would happen is a mystery.
Comments from Russian Federation – that it is prepared to meet with OPEC if there’s consensus among its members – provided the impetus for trading.
With Iranian oil coming back to market, the global supply glut may actually worsen this year.
Oil futures extended losses into a third session in Asian trade on Wednesday, as USA crude stocks last week surged to more than half a billion barrels and as Iran plans to boost exports from March. WTI settled at $29.88 on Tuesday and slipped to around $29.79 shortly after the report’s release.
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That is higher than the 1.44-million barrels a day Iran is expected to export in February and 1.5-million barrels a day in January, according to data on Iran’s preliminary tanker loading schedules. That missed the $814.7 million average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, and compares with year-earlier profit of $2.24 billion. Of course with gasoline supplies also increasing, even at the slower refining pace, prices at the pump really should remain on their downward trajectory. Previous year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $2.067 on average in the United States.
