USA crude oil refinery inputs averaged about 16.9 million barrels per day during the week of July 29, up 266,000 barrels per day from the previous week’s average.
Advertisement
Traders said that oil markets were still under pressure from overproduction in crude and also refined products, which has left onshore storage tanks filled to the rims and triggered the chartering of some tankers to store unsold fuel.
At around 0350 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in September was up 25 cents, or 0.63 per cent, to $39.76 and Brent crude for October added 19 cents, or 0.45 per cent, at $41.99 a barrel.
Oil traded near $40 a barrel before weekly United States government stockpile data and after falling into a bear market on concern the global supply glut will persist.
USA crude inventories rose for a second week in row, gaining 1.4 million barrels last week, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 1.4 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported. Additionally, supply from OPEC rose to 33.41 million barrels per day, from a revised 33.31 million barrels per day in June.
U.S. Crude futures bounced from 14-week lows on Wednesday, as an unexpected draw in gasoline inventories last week helped temporarily ease some concerns related to the prolonged supply glut in global energy markets.
Oil companies have postponed or cancelled oil exploration and development projects due to low crude prices, in turn affecting the offshore drilling industry. However the country’s crude supply managed to increase 1.4 million barrels last week, as compared to the markets’ expected drop of 1.4 million barrels. The official data suggested that crude oil imports averaged 8.288 million barrels a day in the last four weeks. Since then, traders have become increasingly concerned that demand is not growing fast enough to whittle away near-record inventories of crude oil and petroleum products in the near future.
Advertisement
“Our long standing WTI-Brent targets of $37-38 remain as high probability and position type shorts represent a hold”, said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates. Now; however, these supply disruptions are over and we only have about a month of peak demand season left.
