WTI futures reversed earlier losses to climb into bull ground after the US reported a significant amount of stockpiled crude was drawn last week, signaling demand could be picking up. Meanwhile, Brent was near a two-year bottom.
WTI futures for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded at $91.71 per barrel at 14:46 GMT today, up 0.16% for the day. Prices had ranged from $91.12 to $91.92 per barrel. The US benchmark added 0.8% on Tuesday, reversing losses from Monday.
Meanwhile on the ICE in London, November Brent stood at $96.15 per barrel, down 0.72%, with prices between a two-year bottom of $95.72 and $97.01 per barrel. The contract’s premium its US counterpart narrowed to $4.44. The European brand added minor losses after sliding 1.5% on Monday.
US inventories
The EIA report, which covers the week through September 19th, revealed crude stocks had lost 4.3 million barrels, as compared with expectations of a 0.7m-1m draw. The result was, however, somewhat priced in, after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute (API) had reported its separate readings for a 6.5m draw yesterday. The draw also marks the 14th weekly decrease out of 17, and is the biggest weekly decrease since mid-July.
Production of crude logged a minor increase to set a new highest level for the past 28 years at 8.867 million barrels per day. Meanwhile, imports of crude had dropped 16% on a weekly basis, after a surprise 7% increase of inbound shipments produced a crude glut in the US last week.
Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the NYMEX West Texas Intermediate contract and the largest hub in the US, were little changed at 20.2 million barrels.
Gasoline stocks were down 0.4m, while distillates, a category which includes diesel and heating fuel, added 0.8 million barrels, largely meeting expectations.
Refineries operated at 93.4%, and gasoline production was slightly lower at 9.2m b/d, while distillates output averaged 4.9m b/d, same as last week.
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