Headlines
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Crude oil eases after U.S. inventories
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Stronger greenback weights on gold
- Poor U.S. statistics send base metals down
Brent and Distillates
Oil changed the trend yesterday and eased, pressured by higher U.S. inventories that capped a six-day rally in the previous session. Nevertheless, the easing seems to be short-lasting only as crude heads higher again this morning.
U.S. crude stocks rose by 2.9 mln.b last week, confounding the consensus forecast for a decline of 1.4 mln.b. The rise in inventories was driven by a big increase in crude imports. Also distillate stocks rose 1.6 mln.b, above the consensus forecast for an increase of 1mln.b as distillate demand remained weak. On the contrary petrol inventories fell 200 kb compared with a forecast for an increase of 400 kb.
Oil prices at close to 68$/b are being affected more by non-fundamental factors such as investment fund activity in the futures market and could fall again because fundamentals remain weak, OPEC's chief economist said Tuesday. Asked whether this meant markets were set for a fall as a result of this activity, Qabazard replied: "They might. They are going up too fast,". OPEC partly blamed speculators for the record run in oil prices to an all-time high of 147.27$/b last July.
Japan's refineries ran at a two-year-low rate of 68.7% last week, down 3.3 % from the week before, industry data showed on Wednesday, reflecting slow oil demand in the country.
Venezuela will work with Russian companies Lukoil and Rosneft to extract oil from two areas in the Carabobo region, the government said on Wednesday, apparently undermining a bidding round for the same blocks.
