February 15, 2024 (MLN): Oil prices edged lower on Thursday, continuing yesterday’s decline, as concerns over U.S. demand persisted following a larger-than-anticipated increase in crude inventories.
Brent crude is currently trading at $80.96 per barrel, down by 0.09% on the day.
While West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) is trading at $76.12 per barrel, down by 0.12% on the day.
U.S. crude inventories jumped by 12 million barrels to 439.5 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, far exceeding analysts' expectations, as Reuters reported.
"The refinery utilization rate is a pseudo disaster, down four to five weeks in a row at the end of winter" said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, adding that refiners have kept activity slow even after emerging from a deep freeze that hampered operations last month.
Refinery crude runs last week fell by 298,000 barrels per day to 14.5 million bpd and refinery utilization rates decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 80.6% of total capacity, both the lowest levels since Winter Storm Elliott similarly knocked scores of refineries offline in December 2022.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress intelligence chair warned of a 'serious national security threat', without providing further details, scaring some oil investors.
"At the risk of sounding flip, war and/or terror events outside the oil producing regions are bearish for oil prices due to the expected hit to demand," John Kilduff, partner at New York-based Again Capital.
Prices drew some support from a monthly report on Tuesday from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that said global oil demand will rise by 2.25m bpd in 2024 and by 1.85m bpd in 2025. Both forecasts were unchanged from last month.
In other OPEC news, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani held a meeting with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, in which he highlighted the importance of coordination between the two countries to maintain stability in oil markets.
Kazakhstan said it will compensate in the coming months for its oil overproduction in January, meeting its commitment to OPEC+ production cuts.
Geopolitical factors also influenced oil markets, including conflicts in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine and the growing view that U.S. interest rate cuts will start later than previously expected.
"Currently events around Israel and Gaza, together with Ukraine’s war against Russia, weigh more on sentiment than disappointing U.S. inflation data," said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.
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Posted on: 2024-02-15T12:31:12+05:00
