Oil prices rebounded on Wednesday after falling by as much as 3 per cent in the previous session, as data from an industry group showed a smaller-than-expected build in United States crude stockpiles.
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Futures fell as much as 2.8 per cent in NY.
ExxonMobil has a pipeline prepared to export Nigeria’s Qua Iboe crude oil, with the first cargo expected to load as early as the end of September, trading sources said on Thursday.
The country has increased its output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) since May 2016 and reached the level of 10.6 million bpd in August, while US oil output decreased by 460,000 bpd in the reported period.
Oil futures were looking gloomy on Tuesday morning following the latest monthly report from the International Energy Agency, which forecasts oil supply and demand.
The IEA’s latest comments followed a bearish outlook from Opec the day before. While the API build was lower than expected and initially boosted prices Wednesday, EIA figures could move prices lower if they show a larger stockpile increase, he said.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 41 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $45.88 a barrel. The contract slid $1.39 to close at $44.90 Tuesday. Total volume traded was 4 percent below the 100-day average.
November Brent crude LCOX6, -2.21% on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost 80 cents, or 1.7%, to $46.30 a barrel after similar volatile moves. The S&P 500 (SPX) shed 34 points, or 1.6 percent, to 2,125, with all 10 of its major industry groups falling.
The EIA reported a surprise build-up of 4.6 million barrels in inventories of distillates for the last week, compared to analysts’ prediction of 1.5 million barrels, which weighed negatively on market sentiments.
That confounded market expectations for a gain of four million barrels, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg News. The agency trimmed projections for global oil demand next year by 200,000 barrels a day to 97.3 million a day. Sellers also responded to the news that Libya was preparing to start working to resume crude exports from ports seized in recent days by forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.
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“Global inventories will continue to grow; OECD stockpiles in July smashed through the 3.1 billion barrel wall”, it said. In early September, he said the predicted balance has yet to emerge and both reports have now pushed that scenario out to at least 2018.
