“According to secondary sources, OPEC-14 crude oil production (following the rejoining of Gabon on 1 July), averaged 33.11 mb/d in July, an increase of 46 tb/d over the previous month”, the report read.
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The price of West Texas Intermediate oil, the US benchmark crude, rose 1.4% to $43.13 per barrel at 11:10 a.m. Thursday.
The IEA’s August update on the state of the oil markets showed that in 2017 that global demand will slow from the 1.4 million barrels per day previously expected to 1.2 million per day.
“The API figures have added pressure on prices, which are likely to continue to fluctuate until we see official figures from the US Department of Energy later tonight”, said IG Markets strategist Bernard Aw. This is due to Non-OPEC producers decreasing production as historically low oil prices impact solvency.
Believe it or not but Saudi Arabia, which flooded the world oil market in July with a record 10.87 million barrels a day, now claims that major producers will need to move to steady the market at a meeting next month.
The Paris-based organization predicted in its Oil Market Report for August that output is likely to lag demand by nearly one million barrels a day from July to September even as OPEC producers pump at record or near record levels.
“As both a consumer and a refiner of oil – the country’s refineries processed 2.5 percent more crude oil than past year in July – China is thus contributing to the tightening of the oil market”, Commerzbank said.
And oil prices are still more than 12 percent below their last peak in June, as brimming storage tanks and production that exceeds consumption weighs on markets.
International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $46.40 per barrel at 0536 GMT, up 36 cents, or 0.8 per cent, and earlier hitting a three-week high at $46.66.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Opec members and nonmembers would discuss the market situation, including any action that may be required to stabilise prices, during an informal meeting on September 26 in Algeria.
Refiners’ crude processing this quarter will increase by 600,000 barrels a day from a year earlier to a record 80.6 million a day, according to the IEA.
Even as oil surged, many analysts remained skeptical that Saudi Arabia would follow through with its words.
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The IEA had previously forecast growth of 1.3 mb/d for 2017.
