Market focus on OPEC+ meeting ignores US inventory increase for 6 consecutive weeks, crude oil rises, Brent reaches 3-week high | Anue Juheng – Energy

International oil prices rose on Wednesday (29th) as investors focused on tomorrow’s OPEC+ meeting, which is expected to result in further supply cuts and ignored the sixth consecutive weekly increase in U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories. Separately, traders also assessed the storm’s disruption to Black Sea crude oil shipments.

However, negotiations between major oil producers continue, and some news reports indicate that the meeting may be postponed again.

energy commodity prices

• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for January delivery rose $1.45, or 1.9%, to settle at $77.86 a barrel, the highest closing price since November 14.
• Delivered in JanuaryBrent crude oil (Brent) futures rose $1.42, or 1.7%, to $83.10 a barrel, the highest closing price since November 6.
• Delivered in FebruaryBrent crude oil (Brent) futures rose $1.41, or 1.7%, to $82.33 a barrel, the most actively traded Brent crude oilfutures.
• Gasoline futures for December delivery rose 2.4% to settle at $2.28 a gallon.
• Delivered in DecemberThermal Fuel FuturesPrices fell 0.6% to settle at $2.89 per gallon.
• Natural gas futures for January delivery fell 1.2% to settle at $2.80 per million Btu.

market drivers

Kpler analyst Matt Smith said that the expectation that “the OPEC+ group will come up with some kind of solution to support prices” has given support to the market.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia (known as OPEC+) will hold a meeting on Thursday. The focus of pre-meeting negotiations is further production cuts, but “Reuters” reported that sources revealed that the details of the countries have not yet reached agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported that production cuts may be as high as 1 million barrels per day.

CFRA analyst Stewart Glickman said that the OPEC+ meeting tomorrow (30th) is highly anticipated, and details are the top priority.

At the same time, Reuters reported that the Russian Ministry of Transport said on Wednesday that weather conditions in the Black Sea were still not conducive to shipping and restrictions would continue to be implemented. Severe storms in the region have reportedly disrupted Kazakh oil exports of up to 2 million barrels per day.

supply report

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. crude oil and distillate inventories unexpectedly increased last week, indicating weak demand. At the same time, gasoline inventories also increased more than expected.

EIA data showed that last week (ended 11/24), US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels, gasoline supply increased by 1.8 million barrels, and distillate supply increased by 5.2 million barrels.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) announced late Tuesday that crude oil inventories fell by 817,000 barrels last week.

According to the S&P Global Commodity Insights survey, analysts on average expected US commercial crude oil inventories to decrease by 700,000 barrels last week (ending 11/24), gasoline supply to increase by 200,000 barrels, and distillate supply to fall by 100,000 barrels.

In addition, EIA data showed that crude oil inventories at Cushing, the New York Stock Exchange delivery center, increased by 1.8 million barrels last week.