By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 23rd May, 2019.
Brent Oil prices shrank $1.19 or 1.65% to $70.99 and WTI, July futures contract prices slipped by $1.71 or 2.7% to $61.42 a barrel last night. In Shanghai, Crude oil main contract dropped by 4.4 Yuan or 0.85% to 504.7 Yuan/barrel while MCX crude futures prices dropped by Rs.139 to settle at Rs.4276 yesterday.
A surprise hefty build in U.S crude stocks compounded the fears over the estimated dent in crude demand amid the trade irritants between the major global economies over the long haul. A slump in equities also added to the ongoing bearish trend, which further deepened the fall in prices. Growing tensions between U.S and China and likelihood of OPEC extending cuts in the second half followed by the Saudi's reassurance to maintain equilibrium in global supplies, limited the losses yesterday.
Coming to weekly stats, EIA reported a build of 4.7Mbpd, 3.7Mbpd and 0.8Mbpd in Crude, Gasoline and distillates during the last week. Production went up by 1Mb to 12.2Mbpd in U.S. Asian markets are opened in red today, extending the earlier session's losses. Geo-politics in West Asia, Shrinking supplies from Iran and Venezuela and OPEC's move in the second half are the factors going to drive the market in the coming days. Have a good day.
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed here are personal. This commentary is for information purposes only and not an offer or a solicitation to sell or buy any physical commodities or financial instruments. The views and analysis are based on reliable public information available at the time of writing. This report and its content cannot be copied, redistributed or reproduced in part or whole without the prior written permission of petrobazaar.com
