By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 21st June, 2018.
Crude oil prices are trading lower
Yesterday, U.S crude oil futures closed higher where as Brent futures ended lower. Prices for WTI gained after EIA revealed a larger weekly drawings in U.S crude stocks since Jan. However, higher refining activity resulted in solid builds to both gasoline and distillates stocks.
Looming over OPEC meeting and comments from producers, ahead of one of the most toughest meeting, Brent futures dropped as the traders continued to monitor the news and anticipated surge in crude supplies. Tariff tensions were seemed to be eased on Wednesday. Both the crude oil futures are opened down as the Iran signals the support for small supply increase.
Crude oil price update
U.S crude futures for July delivery gained 64 cents or nearly 1 pct at $65.71 a barrel on Nymex where as Brent futures to be delivered in August lost 34 cents or below 0.5 % on London based ICE future Europe exchange. U.S July futures expired yesterday. Shanghai futures were down and no change in MCX futures.Today, both WTI and Brent futures are opened down during Asian trading hours and trading with a loss of around 0.5 percent at the time of reporting.
EIA report – summary
Crude oil stocks in U.S were drawn by 5.9 Mbpd, A drop of 1.4% from previous week. Gasoline and distillates stocks were built by 3.3 Mb and 2.7 Mb for the week ending 15th June, 2018. There was no change in production numbers and operable capacity during the week. Net imports were decreased and exports were ballooned up. Crude oil inputs into refinery were jumped which might have caused the drop in crude stocks and raise in motor fuels stocks. The refinery utilisation percentage was increased by 1%. Cushing stocks were slid a little.
Comment
Oil is trading at the bottom of the range and Brent is expected to flirt between $75 and $80. There is a room for bulls to trade coming forward. This OPEC meeting is considered as an important and tough meeting for a while. Fractures have already started within the cartel for last couple of days and news is coming up on cooling the heat. let us wait for the outcome.
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