Oil Lower Early Thursday
OAKHURST, N.J. (DTN) -- New York Mercantile Exchange nearest delivered oil futures and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange extended lower early Thursday, remaining under pressure from building domestic crude supplies.
Energy Information Administration data released midmorning Wednesday detailed crude supplies increased 6.5 million barrel (bbl) in the week-ended Oct. 12, the third straight week of better-than-expected builds with supply up over 20.5 million bbl over four straight weeks. Commercial crude stocks are at a 3-1/2 month high and days of forward supply is now at a 4-1/2 month high.
At the key Cushing supply depot in Oklahoma, which serves as the delivery location for the Nymex West Texas Intermediate futures contract, supply rose for a fourth straight week, up 1.776 million bbl to a better than 2-month high at 28.628 million bbl.
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Meantime, a stronger dollar is also weighing on the market while some also suggest the run-up in oil prices ahead of U.S. sanctions against Iran in the next few weeks may have gotten "ahead of itself."
Sanctions on Iranian oil are set to take effect on Nov. 4 and the market has questioned if production increases by Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States would be enough to offset those lost barrels.
International Energy Agency data for September shows the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries produced 32.78 million barrels per day (bpd), a one-year high.
Per OPEC data, Saudi Arabia's crude production at 10.512 million bpd in September was its highest in nearly two years while Russia's oil output at 11.54 million bpd in September was a post-Soviet high.
At 9 a.m. ET, Nymex November WTI was at $68.81 bbl, down nearly $1.00 and near a one-month low. The December ICE Brent contract was $1.08 lower at $78.97 bbl.
Nymex November RBOB futures at $1.8934 gallon was down over 2.5 cents and the November ULSD contract slid 2.01 cents to $2.2910 gallon.
Dawn Gallagher can be reached at dawn.gallagher@dtn.com
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