crude Brent oil futures prices for April delivery inched up 22 cents or 0.278 percent to $79.43 a barrel while WTI oil March futures are trading up 19 cents or 0.257% to $74.05 a barrel on Thursday morning. Both the world benchmarks traded up around 0.75 percent yesterday on bullish weekly numbers. Brent premium over WTI widened to $5.35 a barrel during the session.
crude benchmarks curves moving straight for last two sessions after falling on the first day of the week. Falling U.S product stocks, Prevailing middle east tensions and mixed signals from Federal bank are the supporting factors existed in the crude market. Trouncing back analysts expectations of smaller build, EIA reported larger build of 5.5 Mbpd in U.S crude stocks. Gasoline stocks and distillates stocks fell by 3.15 Mbpd and 3.2Mpbd respectively during the last week as per the report. crude build is attributed to refineries maintenance call. Traders are carefully gauging the developments in red sea, a shortest connectivity between Asia and Africa. Vessels that carry around 12 percent of world cargo, getting targeted by Houthi rebels.
IEA said that India is expected to be the largest driver of global oil demand growth between 2023 and 2030, narrowly taking the lead from top importer China. That creates an impression of struggling largest economies, dent confidence in the global oil demand outlook. Rig numbers are awaited. profit booking is expected at the week end. Monthly reports are due next week.
