Oil Prices Rise on Stockpile, Global Demand Concerns

Investing.com – Crude prices were higher on Friday as an increase in stockpile data sparked concerns about a global oversupply as demand for oil wanes.

West Texas for November rose 0.66% to $71.44 a barrel as of 6:07 AM ET (10:07 GMT). Meanwhile futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., increased 0.44% to $80.61.

Data on Thursday showed that inventories in the U.S. continue to rise more than expected, leading to a concern of oversupply. U.S. crude inventories rose by 6 million barrels last week, compared with the general consensus of a 2.6 million-barrel increase, the EIA reported on Thursday.

A week earlier the agency reported 8-million barrel rise in U.S. crude stocks.

Meanwhile the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its oil demand growth estimates for 2018 and 2019 in its monthly report on Thursday.

The organization revised its global oil demand growth to 1.54 million barrels per day this year, down by 80,000 bpd. Potential headwinds to global economic growth were cited as the reason for the downgrade.

Prices of oil have already been rising in recent months over concern of tightening supply due to U.S. sanctions against Tehran, which are due to take effect November 4 but have already caused Iran’s crude exports to fall.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and the third-largest exporter in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Traders are also looking ahead to the weekly U.S. Baker Hughes oil rig count, which is a leading indicator of demand for oil products.

In other energy trading, rose 1.00% to $1.9518 a gallon, while increased 0.23% to $2.3376 a gallon. surged 1.30% to $3.264 per million British thermal units.

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