Commodities – WTI Oil Futures Extend Losses After Surprise Inventory Build

Investing.com – West Texas Intermediate oil extended losses in North American trade on Thursday, after data showed that crude stockpiles in the U.S. registered a surprise inventory build.

for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 86 cents, or 1.2%, to trade at $73.28 a barrel by 11:02AM ET (16:02GMT) compared to $74.05 ahead of the report.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that rose by 1.245 million barrels in the week ended June 29. Market analysts’ had expected a crude-stock draw of 5.200 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a supply draw of .

, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, decreased by 2.113 million barrels last week, the EIA said. Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 417.9 million barrels as of last week, according to press release, which the EIA indicated was “about 2% below the five year average for this time of year”.

The report also showed that decreased by 1.505 million barrels, compared to expectations for a draw of 0.817 million barrels, while rose by 0.134 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a decrease of 0.545 million.

The report came out one day later than usual due to Wednesday’s Independence Day holiday.

Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, for September delivery traded down 85 cents, or 1.1%, to $78.39 by 11:08AM ET (15:08GMT), compared to $78.35 before the release.

Also in focus, late Wednesday via Twitter, U.S. President Donald Trump urged the world’s major oil producing countries to do more to stabilize oil markets and bring down prices.

His comments came only days after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia reviewed the possibility of the kingdom releasing more of its own oil to dampen rising prices.

Saudi King Salman agreed that the country, at its discretion, would add more output to the market. The Saudis, however, did not specify any production targets.

OPEC together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by Russia started to withhold output in 2017 to prop up prices, but recently decided to increase production to cover supply shortages from the likes of Libya, Venezuela and Angola.

Looming U.S. sanctions against major oil exporter Iran also received some attention, as the U.S. government said it wants to shut Iran’s oil exports out of the market from November. 

Elsewhere on Nymex, for August delivery fell 0.9 cents to $2.1230 a gallon by 11:11AM ET (15:11GMT), while the August contract for traded up 1.2 cents to $2.1759 a gallon.

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