DTN Oil

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Nearest delivery oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange finished mixed Tuesday, with the U.S. crude benchmark settling unchanged at a 5-month high as market participants await the weekly release of U.S. oil inventory data and the ministerial meeting between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and partners scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 19.

West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery finished the session at $42.89 barrel (bbl), unchanged from Monday's settle and the spot month international Brent crude contract ended 9 cents higher at $45.46 a barrel. NYMEX ULSD September futures advanced 2.13 cents to $1.2604 gallon and front-month RBOB futures gained 1.30 cents to $1.2830 gallon. The U.S. dollar fell back to a fresh two-year low 92.270 in afternoon index trade, providing limited support to the oil complex.

American Petroleum Institute data due out later Tuesday afternoon is expected to show across-the-board draws in U.S. crude and petroleum supplies last week. Analysts estimate U.S. crude stocks declined 1.3 million bbl during the week ended Aug. 14, while gasoline inventories are forecast to have fallen by 1.6 million bbl and distillate supplies are projected to decrease by 1 million bbl. Refinery runs likely rose by 0.3% to 81.3% of capacity. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will publish official supply data on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Supporting prices on Tuesday, a technical panel for OPEC+ found the compliance rate with output cuts in July was between 95% and 97%, according to a draft report published on Monday. OPEC+ eased their cuts in August to 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) from 9.7 million bpd previously. The 23-nation alliance will hold a ministerial panel meeting Wednesday, where producers expected to review adherence to the current agreement.

Liubov Georges can be reached at liubov.georges@dtn.com

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