Crude oil prices have risen today after the Energy Information Administration reported a 600,000-barrel inventory draw for the week through Dec. 18.
This was compared to an estimated 3.1 million barrels for the previous week and an inventory of 2.7 million barrels for the week to December 18, according to the American Petroleum Institute estimate. and informed yesterday. Analysts had expected the EIA to report an inventory draw of 3.25 million barrels for last week.
Oil prices have risen over the past two weeks thanks to positive news about vaccines and expect a rebound in demand once large-scale vaccines start. However, earlier this week, oil reversed its rise in the news of a new, more virulent variant of the coronavirus that infected thousands of people in the UK and caused new travel restrictions in Europe and other parts of the world. . The news saw oil traders abandon their positions en masse, pushing prices down.
The decline in crude oil purchases by Asian refiners also contributed to the recent reversal of oil price fortunes.
Meanwhile, the EIA reported a drop in gasoline inventory, worth 1.1 million barrels, with a production last week of 8.8 million bpd. This compared to an inventory of 1 million for the week before previous production and an average of 8.5 million bpd.
In distilled fuels, the authority estimated a drop in inventory of 2.3 million barrels, with an average production of 4.6 million barrels per day. This was compared to a modest increase in inventory of 200,000 barrels the previous week and a production of 4.6 million barrels per day.
“Oil prices are fading amid fears the new strain will derail the recovery in fuel demand,” PVM Oil Associates analyst Stephen Brennock told Bloomberg on Monday as prices began to fall on fears of virus. “In any case, it reaffirms that the path to normalizing demand is anything but smooth.”
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $ 50.81 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate at $ 47.81
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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