DTN Oil Update
Oil Prices Steady Ahead of Labor Day Weekend
VIENNA (DTN) -- Oil prices steadied Thursday morning after gaining 1% in Wednesday's session. Shrinking oil inventories in the United States lent some support as market participants turned their focus to a looming oversupply situation as the main driving season comes to an end.
NYMEX-traded WTI for October delivery fell $0.12 to trade near $64.03 barrel (bbl) and ICE Brent for October delivery slid $0.10 to $67.95 bbl.
September RBOB gasoline futures softened by $0.0045 to $2.1444 gal, and the front-month ULSD contract retreated $0.0029 to $2.2924 gal.
The U.S. Dollar Index softened by 0.247 points to 97.880.
The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported a 2.4-million-bbl draw to commercial crude oil inventories, with stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, tank farm dropping by 900,000 bbls. Nationwide gasoline inventories fell 1.2 million bbls, and distillate fuel oil inventories shrank by 1.8 million bbls.
Refinery runs eased off recent highs as the main demand season for gasoline is coming to a close this weekend. Sentiment has been turning bearish as feared supply disruptions, like sanctions on Russian oil flows and secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil, have so far failed to meaningfully impact the global supply-demand balance. Russian crude oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia, meanwhile, have restarted after a week-long shut down of the Druzhba pipeline.
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