Friday 10 Jan
Oil prices extended losses on Thursday, following a decline the previous day. This downturn was primarily attributed to a significant surge in U.S. fuel inventories last week. However, concerns over potential supply reductions from OPEC+ members, including Russia, partially mitigated the price fall.
Brent crude futures dipped 28 cents, or 0.4%, to $75.88 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 30 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.02. Both benchmarks had declined by more than 1% on Wednesday, pressured by a stronger dollar and a larger-than-expected build in U.S. fuel inventories.
The U.S. Energy Information
Administration reported on Wednesday that gasoline inventories surged by 6.3
million barrels last week, reaching 237.7 million barrels. This significantly
exceeded analyst expectations of a 1.5 million barrel increase. Distillate fuel
inventories, encompassing diesel and heating oil, also rose substantially,
increasing by 6.1 million barrels to 128.9 million barrels, compared to the
expected increase of 600,000 barrels.
Conversely, crude oil inventories
declined by 959,000 barrels last week, exceeding analyst expectations of a
184,000 barrel decrease.
In Russia, average oil production was 8.971 million barrels per day in December, below the country's target, according to Bloomberg.
