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Oil prices jumped on Wednesday, with the Brent world benchmark reaching $ 80 a barrel for the first time since May, after the United States reported a drop in crude oil inventories and an increase in exports of crude oil. oil.
Light crude oil for October delivery was up 2.7% to $ 71.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the world benchmark, rose 1% to $ 79.84 per barrel.
The Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that US crude oil inventories fell by 5.3 million barrels to 396 million barrels, marking the first reading under-400 since February 2015 and is lower by 3 % to the five-year average. Analysts were only expecting a drop of 1.6 million barrels. Rising oil inventories in the United States, which increased by more than 300,000 barrels a day to 1.8 million barrels, contributed to the decline in inventories.
The report also showed that US oil production has once again declined from 11 million barrels a day to 10.9 million barrels a day. The data coincides with an EIA report released on Tuesday, which reduced oil production forecasts for the United States by 11.7 million barrels a day in 2011 to 11.5 million barrels a day.
"We had been in a trend of revisions going the other way before, the forecast for production was still revised upward," said Olivier Jakob, director of the Petromatrix consulting firm, adding that production is now to the point of death.
Nevertheless, some analysts have questioned whether the weekly EIA report released on Wednesday is as optimistic as it appears, noting that processed fuels such as gasoline and diesel have seen sharp increases in inventories.
"The 5.3 million barrel crude oil withdrawal was easily overshadowed by a huge distillate volume of 6.2 million euros on a very low implicit demand," said Kyle Cooper, consultant at ION Energy. "Despite the surprising drop in oil production below 48% and the sluggish demand for oil in the United States, total US oil inventories have risen by more than 10 million barrels."
Meanwhile, investors have worried that oil gains may be due to a series of storms that could lead to fuel shortages or other upward supply problems.
Tropical storm Isaac could head to the great Texas oil state later this week. Hurricane Florence is not expected to affect any of the major oil assets as it heads to the Carolinas, but could be the strongest since 1989, according to weather forecasts.
Market players will also monitor a meeting between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-members next week in Algeria.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have already taken steps to replace part of the decline in Iranian exports caused by US sanctions, with analysts noting tensions in OPEC because of Iran's opposition to other members to make up for the fall.
"The past two weeks have been marked by the expected tightening of Iranian crude oil flows … the capital outflow deficit has largely contributed to a general tightening of crude oil markets," said consultant JBC Energy.
Oil gains were recorded Wednesday, despite new data showing that OPEC's total oil output rose last month, a sign that the cartel has decided to pump more barrels of crude oil this summer after more than a year's worth of oil. slow-down.
OPEC crude oil production rose by 278,000 barrels a day in August, the cartel said, citing secondary sources. The increase was boosted by rising production in Libya, Iraq and Nigeria.
Among refined products, gasoline futures for October delivery rose 1.2% to $ 2.0379 per gallon. Diesel futures increased 0.6% to $ 2.251 per gallon.
Christopher Alessi contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah McFarlane at [email protected] and Dan Molinski at [email protected]
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