Crude Oil Prices Settle Lower, US Output Nears Record, Gasoline Supplies Swell

Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled lower on Wednesday after data showing crude stockpiles fell for the second straight week failed to offset a larger-than-expected build in gasoline supplies.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange for January delivery fell 1% to settle at $56.60 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, lost 1.5% to trade at $62.42 a barrel.

Crude oil prices came under pressure following an Energy Information Agency (EIA) inventory report showing crude stockpiles fell more-than-estimated, but gasoline inventories rose for the second week in a row.

Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 5.1 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 8, beating expectations of 3.8 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – by 5.7 million barrels, well above expectations for rise of 2.5 million barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and – by about 1.4 million barrels, above expectations for a build of 902,000 barrels.

Also weighing on crude prices was a rise in production to record highs as data showed weekly U.S. crude production jumped by 73,000 barrels a day to 9.78 million barrels a day.

The EIA’s report comes after OPEC revealed in its monthly report that production in November, fell by 133,000 bpd to 32.5 million bpd but revised upward its 2018 forecast for non-OPEC output.

OPEC forecasts non-OPEC supply growth to rise by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 990,000 bpd. The oil-cartel said, however, that the 2018 forecast for non-OPEC supply is “associated with considerable uncertainties”. US oil supply is now expected to grow by 1.1 million bpd in 2018, an upward revision of 180,000 barrels, according to the report.

Rising non-OPEC production has added to fears that oil producers not part of the production-cut agreement would continue to ramp up output, slowing the rebalancing in markets.

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