Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 0.3 million barrels again to 397 million barrels in the week ending April 11. Inventory levels in the SPR are hundreds of millions shy of the levels in inventory prior to the SPR withdrawal that took place under the Biden Administration.
Crude oil prices were trading up prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build of 6.037 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories amid a small gasoline draw. The Brent benchmark was trading up 0.01% at 10:28 a.m. ET at $74.50—a roughly $1 per barrel increase over this same time last week. The WTI benchmark, meanwhile, was trading up 0.18% at $71.33—a roughly $1.60 per barrel rise over last week’s levels.
Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.605 billion barrels on February 21, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 2.2 million barrels week on week and up 16.6 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.
The report, which was released on January 29 and included data for the week ending January 24, showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 415.1 million barrels on January 24, 411.7 million barrels on January 17, and 421.9 million barrels on January 26, 2024. The EIA report highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding.
That’s what Chris Weston, Head of Research at Pepperstone, said in a market analysis sent to Rigzone on Monday, highlighting that the buyers are “now in firm control of the tape, with Brent futures pushing through the 200-day moving average”.
“With refinery retirements already announced and rising production, fewer imported barrels will be needed while exports are likely to tick higher with greater crude availability,” said Matt Smith, Kpler lead Americas oil analyst.
Two weeks ago, U.S. oil and gas giant, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) announced it had reached 500M barrels of oil produced from Guyana’s offshore Stabroek block, just five years after it kicked off production at the location.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released recently, the world produced an average of 76.10 million barrels of crude oil per day in the third quarter of 2024.
According to NUPRC, Nigeria’s current production rate, including crude oil and condensates, has reached 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 1.54 million bpd in September, with plans to push this figure to 2 million bpd by year-end.
Oil prices fell on Monday after China’s fiscal stimulus measures, announced at the National People’s Congress, failed to meet investor expectations, suggesting limited support for fuel demand.