US crude stocks and OPEC supplies are concentrated

Oil prices fell Thursday for the second day, prolonging the 4% drop in the previous session, as US crude stocks continue to rise and concerns about weaker demand growth .

Brent futures fell 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $ 59.91 per barrel, to 0,336 GMT, after a slight increase previously. Prices fell 3.7% Wednesday to settle at $ 59.97, the lowest level of the international benchmark since January 28th.

US West Texas Intermediate futures contracts fell 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $ 51.06 per barrel. They fell 4% in the previous session to $ 51.14, the lowest closing since January 14th.

"It was a brutal move, a real panic," said Stephen Innes, managing partner of Vanguard Markets.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Wednesday that crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly for the second week in a row, reaching 2.2 million barrels last week after analysts forecast a drop of 481,000 barrels .

US commercial stocks reached their highest level since July 2017 at 485.5 million barrels, about 8% higher than the average of the last five years for this time of year.

On Tuesday, the EIA cut its forecast for growth in global oil demand in 2019.

The negative outlook is encouraging hedge fund managers to divest themselves of oil positions at the highest rate since the fourth quarter of 2018 due to growing fears about the health of the global economy.

The escalation of the trade war between the United States and China, the world's two largest oil consumers, is causing the most concern among oil analysts, consultants and banks alleviating their demand growth forecasts.

Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday that uncertain macroeconomic prospects and volatile Iranian and Iranian oil production could lead the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to postpone supply cuts made by other producers. .

OPEC producers and non-member countries, including Russia, have limited their oil production to 1.2 million barrels a day this year to support prices.

OPEC is expected to meet at the end of June, but a meeting of larger producers who have accepted the cuts, known as OPEC +, may not be held until early July.

While officials from some OPEC members have said that the wider OPEC + group would probably come back on cuts, Algeria has proposed to increase cuts, according to four sources close to the file.

However, Goldman believes that producers will maintain current supply levels.

"The fundamental uncertainties about the current and future states of the global oil market are high," said Goldman.

"We believe that this will bring the group to implement its current agreement, without any change in country quotas, given the difficulty to determine the production levels required in the coming months," said analysts at the bank.