Crude Oil Gains In Asia As Market Looks Ahead To API Estimates

Investing.com – Crude oil prices gained in Asia on Tuesday as the market looked ahead to industry estimates on U.S. inventories.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for December delivery rose 0.10% to $51.95 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, gained 0.05% to $57.40 a barrel.

Later Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will report its estimates of and refined product stocks to be followed on Wednesday by officiald ata fromt he Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Analysts expect a 2.5 million barrels drop in crude stocks and a 1.9 million barrels decreasem in distillates and gasoline inventories off by 1.9 million barrels.

Overnight, crude oil prices settled higher on Monday as signs of tightening in U.S. drilling activity lifted sentiment while ongoing political tensions in the Iraq continued to disrupt crude supplies.

Crude oil prices ended the session on the front foot as traders cheered news suggesting oil exports from Northern Iraq dropped sharply amid ongoing political unrest in Northern Iraq.

As of Sunday, oil exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan via the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan continued to come under pressure, flowing at sharply reduced rates between 200,000 and 250,000 barrels per day, Reuters reported, citing two shipping sources.

The uptick in political tensions in Northern Iraq follows conflict between Iraqi and Kurdish forces last week, as Kurdish forces retreated from Northern parts of Iraq, ceding control of two major oilfields.

That added to positive sentiment on oil prices amid signs of a drop in U.S. drilling activity. Baker Hughes on Friday said the number of active U.S. oil rigs declined for a third straight week.

Analysts at Commerzbank (DE:), however, warned that drilling activity could pick up pace “in the coming months”, and expected prices of both Brent and Crude Oil to “correct” in the short term.

Expectations of an increase in output has failed, however, to weigh on sentiment as data showed traders increased their bullish bets on crude oil futures last week.

Net bullish bets on Crude Oil rose to 429,500, according to a report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

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