DTN Oil Update
Oil Futures Rose Despite Builds in Crude, Gasoline
HOUSTON (DTN) -- â?¯Oil futures rose Thursday morning despite the American Petroleum Institute report on Wednesday showing a build in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories.
The front-month NYMEX WTI futures increased by $0.35 to $72.60 barrel (bbl) while the April ICE Brent futures contract rose by $0.43 to $76.47 bbl. March RBOB futures contract was steady at $2.0867 gallon while ULSD futures contract for March delivery rose by $0.0325 to $2.4890 gallon.
The U.S. Dollar Index dropped by 0.31% to 106.76 against a basket of foreign currencies.
The American Petroleum Institute reported commercial crude and gasoline stocks continued to build through the week ended Feb. 14 as they increased 3.34 million bbl and 2.83 million bbl, respectively. Meanwhile, the distillate fuel inventory fell 2.69 million bbl in the reference week.
However, the bullish sentiment in the oil futures market was driven this morning by expectations of tight supplies as OPEC plans to extend voluntary oil output cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), until April.
The 2.2-million-bpd adjustments are expected to be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026 "to support market stability." This monthly increase can be paused or reversed subject to market conditions, as OPEC+ agreed during its December meeting.
OPEC+ also will extend voluntary adjustment cuts of 1.65 million bpd, announced in April 2023, until the end of December of next year. â?¯
Meanwhile, the oil futures market continued monitoring the impact that trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported goods from China, and steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico could have on the global economy.
"Trade tariff threats are overriding fundamentals. Oil momentum indicators are waning with the forward curve backwardation narrowing (to $3 bbl from $8 bbl) and investors liquidating long positions. This is despite impending risks of disruptions in export flows from Russia and Iran," according to a recent report from ANZ Research.
Separately Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Labor reported the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous, which was above the market expectation of 215,000.
