BLBG: Oil Extends Gains as Industry Report Shows U.S. Stockpile Drop
U.S. crude supplies fell 4.15 million barrels last week: API
Libya to load first crude cargo in two years from largest port
Oil extended its advance as industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles declined last week, trimming an inventory overhang.
February futures rose as much as 0.9 percent in New York after climbing 0.5 percent on Tuesday. Crude inventories dropped by 4.15 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. That compares with a forecast 2.5 million-barrel decrease expected in Wednesday’s Energy Information Administration report. Libya reopened two of its biggest oil fields and is set to load the first crude cargo in two years from its largest export terminal.
Oil has traded near $50 a barrel since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Nov. 30 to cut output for the first time in eight years. Non-OPEC producers including Russia will also trim supply. U.S. crude inventories, at the highest seasonal level since the EIA began compiling weekly data in 1982, are projected to decrease for a fifth week.
“The API statistics can be taken as a positive,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of Zug, Switzerland-based consultants Petromatrix GmbH. “When we return to a full market in early January, if Libya is indeed back, we expect that it will start to weigh on speculative sentiment.”
West Texas Intermediate for February delivery gained as much as 49 cents to $53.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $53.54 at 10:13 a.m. in London. The January contract expired Tuesday after adding 11 cents to $52.23 a barrel. Total volume traded was about 40 percent below the 100-day average.
U.S. Stockpiles
Brent for February settlement rose as much as 52 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $55.87 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract climbed 43 cents to $55.35 on Tuesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.06 to WTI.
See also: OPEC’s oil cuts deal shifts focus to compliance
Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the biggest U.S. oil-storage hub, increased by 609,000 barrels last week, the API reported Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the data.
Oil-market news:
Pipelines connecting the Sharara oil field in Libya to the Zawiya refinery and the El-Feel field to the Mellitah energy complex reopened at the town of Rayayina, according to a statement by the state-run National Oil Corp.
OPEC’s agreement to reduce oil production may help send prices above $70 a barrel next year, according to Citigroup Inc.’s Ed Morse.
Kuwait Petroleum Corp. will cut contracted volumes to customers around the world, including some in the U.S., according to a company official, who asked not to be identified because contracts are a private matter.
