US Crude Prices Edge Higher In Asia With Most Regional Markets Closed For Holidays

Investing.com – US crude oil prices edged up in Asian trade on Friday with Lunar New Year holidays across the region making for thin trade and most markets closed outside of Australia, Japan and India with US rig count data head to set the tone.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for March delivery edged up 0.10% to $61.48 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, was last quoted at $64.45 a barrel. Baker Hughes last reported a gain of 26 rigs to 791 in weekly data with some expectations of another jump.

Overnight, prices settled lower as traders continued to digest supportive comments from Saudi Arabia while expectations for a further build in product inventories weighed on sentiment.

Oil prices reversed some of their gains from Wednesday’s session as traders continued to digest recent data showing US oil producers continued to ramp up production while refinery activity continued to drop, which could add to domestic supply totals in the weeks to come.

U.S. refinery utilization dropped to 89.8% last week, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. The slowdown in in refinery activity comes as refiners enter a period of maintenance expected to last “almost a month,” said Michael Loewen, a commodities strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.

Subdued refinery comes as U.S. crude output hit a record 10.27 million barrels per day, which keeps the US on track to meet the EIA’s recent estimate for domestic production to top 11 million barrels per day by year-end.

Yet, offsetting that somewhat was a slump in the dollar to 2-week lows and recent comments from Saudi Arabia suggesting the OPEC-led output curbs could continue in some form beyond the end of 2018.

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