“Asking Iran to freeze its oil production level is illogical”, Iran’s Opec envoy, Mehdi Asali, was quoted as saying by the Shargh newspaper.
Advertisement
Crude Oil prices are in doldrums over the last 90 days.
US crude imports rose last week by 795,000 barrels per day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March CLH6, -0.84% traded at $30.54 a barrel, down $0.23 in the Globex electronic session.
The build overwhelmed US oil’s tick upward in the first few hours of trading.
USA crude CLc1 was up 32 cents at $30.98 a barrel, after an earlier peak at $31.98.
Feb 18 USA crude oil and gasoline inventories rose last week to new record highs as imports of crude grew and refineries increased output, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Thursday.
USA crude futures pared gains after the data, which was in stark contrast for more bullish numbers from industry group the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday that reported a 3.3 million-barrel drop in crude inventories. The diffusion index for current activity rose to -2.8 from -3.5 in January, slightly ahead of consensus estimates for a reading of -3 but marking the sixth consecutive month in negative territory.
The EIA also cited record high gasoline inventories and higher stocks of distillates that include heating oil and diesel. Both reports were released a day later than usual this week due to Monday’s Presidents Day holiday.
In the Middle East, United Arab Emirates oil minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrouei criticized Iran for their intentions to continue to pump oil, while their counterparts in the region are advocating a production freeze. Still, Zanganeh stopped short of approving any deal which requires Iran to limit their production before it can return to pre-sanction levels from 2007.
Advertisement
Four major oil producers – Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela – proposed a collective production freeze at the January levels.
