Oil Prices Rise on Trade Deal Hopes; API Reports Surprise Increase in Crude Stocks

Investing.com – Oil prices rose on Thursday in Asia amid some positive trade news that suggested the U.S. and China would be able to reach a deal by the early March deadline.

Citing sources familiar with negotiations, Reuters reported that U.S. and China have begun to outline a deal to end their trade dispute.

“The broad outline of what could make up a deal is beginning to emerge from the talks,” one of the sources said. He warned that the talks could still fail as China has not yet met the demands requested by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on issues related to structural changes to China’s economy.

Asian equities advanced following the news, while oil prices also traded in the green.

U.S. was up 0.4% at $57.39 by 1:28 AM ET (06:28 GMT). International also rose 0.2% to 67.19.

Oil prices have been receiving some support from supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC, along with Russia, agreed late last year to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to prevent a large supply overhang from growing.

Oil prices traded slightly lower at the start of Asian trading on Thursday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a surprise increase in crude stocks.

U.S. crude stocks for the week ended February 15 were up 1.3 million barrels, the API said. Analysts previously expected U.S. crude stocks to have increased by 3.5 million barrels for the same period.

The API report came after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday in a monthly report that U.S. crude output, which soared by more than 2 million bpd in 2018 to a record 11.9 million bpd, is set to keep rising thanks to booming shale oil production.

Official oil inventory and production data by the EIA are due to be published later in the day.

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