Oil prices rise due to declining US crude inventories

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Wednesday after a decline in crude inventories in the United States.

United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 futures were at $ 69.84 per barrel at 0428 GMT, up 59 cents or 0.9% from their latest settlement. WTI futures gained 2.5% in the previous session.

Brent LCoC1 futures rose 28 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 79.34 per barrel. Brent climbed for four consecutive sessions, gaining 2.2% the day before.

"Oil prices have jumped from day to day as the American Petroleum Institute's inventory data indicates a significant inventory pullback," said William O'Loughlin, investment analyst at Rivkin Securities. in Australia.

US crude inventories fell 8.6 million barrels during the week, from 7 to 395.9 million barrels, said Tuesday the American Petroleum Institute (API), a private industrial group.

The official weekly government data will be released Wednesday by the United States Energy (EIA).

In terms of crude oil production, the EIA estimated Tuesday that US production would increase by 840,000 barrels per day between 2018 and 2019, to 11.5 million bpd, down from 11 , 7 million previously planned.

Outside the United States, traders have been looking into the impact of US sanctions against Iran that will target oil exports starting in November.

Washington has lobbied other governments to reduce their imports as well, and many countries and businesses are already aligning and reducing their purchases, triggering expectations of market tightening.

Iran's crude exports to Asia fall: tmsnrt.rs/2NDV3Os

FRAGILE MARKET

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak warned on Wednesday of the impact of US sanctions against Iran.

"This is a huge uncertainty in the market – how countries that buy nearly 2 million barrels a day of Iranian oil will act. The situation must be closely monitored, the right decisions must be made, "he said.

Novak said global oil markets were "fragile" because of geopolitical risks and supply disruptions.

"This is because not all countries have been able to restore their markets and their production," he said, referring to failures and falling production in Mexico and Venezuela.

If markets overheated and prices skyrocketed, Novak said Russia could increase production.

"Russia has the potential to increase its production by 300,000 barrels (per day) in the medium term, in addition to the level of October 2016," he said.

This month, Russia produced 11 247 million barrels a day, a record for the post-Soviet Union.

Oil markets were also watching Hurricane Florence off the United States as demand for gasoline and diesel increased.

The storm is expected to hit the east coast of the United States on Friday and cause fuel shortages, as millions of households and businesses have been evacuated.

The price of gasoline futures contracts at the start of the year RBV8 rose by 0.5% on Wednesday, while that of the VMO8 heating oil futures contracts rose by 0.4%.

The first three producers meet the third request: tmsnrt.rs/2NqbrBZ