Crude stocks saw a build of more than 4 million barrels while distillates rose 350k barrels as speculators were expecting a 1 million barrel draw in diesel/heating oil. Stockpiles have now risen for seven consecutive weeks, nearing a record high above 490 million barrels touched in April.
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At around 0720 GMT, USA benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in December was trading 26 cents higher at US$43.19 and Brent crude for December was up 22 cents at US$46.03 a barrel. Its low in August was $37.75. Companies are required to report data to the EIA, while reporting to the API is voluntary. The session low was $44.33, the lowest since Aug 27. European shares ended up 0.7 percent.
Traders are waiting for the release later Thursday of data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing the country’s commercial stockpiles for an indication of demand in the world’s top crude consumer.
Precious metals also continued lower, with the COMEX gold futures contract down 0.57% or $6.20 at $1,078.70 an ounce, while spot gold was 0.62% or $6.72 lower at $1,079.54 an ounce.
The move could be directly linked to the extreme volatility of the crude oil market internationally, now that prices are at historic lows, with investors extra sensitive to any news that could bring them even lower or, maybe, higher. The collapse of crude prices over the past year has contributed to a surge in tanker rates. In the USA, crude storage levels hit 487 million barrels in early November, closing in on the 80-year high of 490 million barrels hit earlier this year.
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In its monthly report, OPEC said its output dropped in October but at current levels it could still produce a daily surplus above 500,000 barrels by 2016.
