The movement of crude oil futures was mixed during mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday, amid a bullish report on last week’s US crude stock level and a bearish report on US crude production. At 10:15 am Singapore time (0215 GMT), ICE April Brent crude futures were down 13 cents/b (0.20%) from Wednesday’s settle to $66.26/b, while the NYMEX April light sweet crude contract inched up 3 cents/b (0.5%) to $56.97/b. According to US Energy Information Administration data released Wednesday, US commercial crude inventories for the week ended February 22 fell 8.65 million barrels to 445.87 million barrels.
Analysts surveyed Monday by S&P Global Platts, on the contrary, were expecting US crude stocks to have increased by 4 million barrels last week. “This [draw in US crude stocks] was significantly larger than what the market was expecting,” ANZ analysts said in a note Thursday. Data on US product inventory was also bullish with US gasoline and distillate barrels down by 1.91 million barrels and 304,000 barrels, respectively, last week, EIA data showed.
While prices reacted positively to this bullish data, the gains were muted by a record high in US crude production, analysts said. US crude production rose 100,000 b/d last week to a record high of 12.1 million b/d, EIA data showed. Higher crude production has also contributed to the build up of crude supply at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point of the NYMEX crude contract. Cushing stocks grew 1.63 million barrels last week to 46.65 million barrels, the highest since early January 2018, EIA data showed.
Meanwhile, OPEC has scheduled another meeting for June 25-26 in Vienna, after it holds its already announced extraordinary session April 17-18, officials said Wednesday. Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said Wednesday that he was “leaning toward the likelihood of an extension in the second half [of 2019],” though he added that the bloc would assure “no unnecessary tightening in the market.”