In particular, crude inventories at the Cushing terminal in Oklahoma – the key delivery hub for US crude futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange – was up 1.16 million barrels from previous week’s level to 65.26 million barrels. Crude production and imports declined.
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For the week ending July 29, 2016, the EIA reported that USA crude oil inventories rose by 1.4 MMbbls to 521.5 MMbbls compared to the previous week.
USA crude oil for September delivery settled down $1.06, or 2.5%, at $41.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
While the unseasonal crude build report offset the big drop in fuel supplies, data showing record July production from Saudi Arabia weighed on markets.
It reported that United States crude oil inventories rose by 2.1 MMbbls (million barrels) between July 29 and August 5, 2016. Crude inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a decline of 800,000 barrels according to analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. WTI oil prices were trading lower ahead of the crude oil inventory report.
“U.S. oil production has stabilized and inventories remain relatively high”, said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, which oversees $133 billion in assets, in a note.
OPEC produced just over 33.1 million barrels of oil per day in July, up 46,400 barrels compared to June, the oil cartel said in a new report released Wednesday. But then, the OPEC meeting scheduled for next month might yield a few pointers on the way to go in dealing with global oil glut and falling oil prices – in the face of declined demands. Considering the fact that OPEC held meetings in April and June with nothing substantial resulting from the conferences, experts think the scheduled September meeting might not be any different seeing that members could not agree on hiking oil prices and limiting production, CNBC wrote.
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“The talk about a production freeze is all talk and no action”, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. For more on crude oil prices, read the previous part of the series. Diesel futures fell 1.23 cents, or 0.9%, to $1.3184 a gallon.
