“While inventories globally have built very significantly, stocks in the pricing centres – especially in the US – are still quite low,” Daan Struyven, head of oil research at Goldman Sachs, said on Bloomberg Television. Market focus has shifted to “downside risks to supply,” he said.
The US is threatening to further tighten the screws on Russia. A group of 50 Republican and Democratic senators introduced a sanctions package that would hit the third-largest oil producer and countries that buy its fuel if President Vladimir Putin refuses to engage in good-faith ceasefire negotiations with Ukraine or if he breaches any eventual agreement.
West Texas Intermediate rose 0.4% to top $67 a barrel, while Brent settled near $71. US distillate inventories dropped to the lowest in more than three months, while gasoline stockpiles hit January lows, reining in concerns about declining fuel consumption. The official data also showed a smaller gain for crude stockpiles than estimated by the American Petroleum Institute, while reserves fell at the Cushing hub.
Crude has surged in 2022, with Brent hitting US$139, its highest since 2008, in early March as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated supply concerns