Crude oil prices gain in Asia

LONDON, October 13, 2017 – Crude prices gained in Asia on Friday with trade data from China supporting rising demand views as the market looks ahead to U.S rig count data.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for November delivery rose 0.47% to $50.84 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent edged up 0.11% to $56.47 a barrel.

China, the world’s second largst crude importer, said crude oil imports for January to Septemeber rose 12.2% to 318 million metric tons.

Overnight, crude oil prices settled lower on Thursday as a bearish outlook on global oil demand for 2018 offset data showing U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell for the third-straight week.

Crude oil prices fell for the first time in three days as investors mulled over a mixed report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing crude stockpiles fell more than expected while gasoline supplies swelled.

Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 2.8m barrels in the week ended Oct. 6, handily beating expectations of a draw of 2m barrels.

Gasoline inventories, one of the products that crude is refined into, rose by roughly 2.5m barrels, confounding expectations of a draw of 480,000 barrels while distillate stockpiles fell by about 1.5m barrels, missing expectations of a decline of 2.2m barrels.

The mixed report on inventories from the EIA came ahead of a monthly update from the International Agency Energy on Thursday suggesting that global demand for oil could come under pressure next year.

Demand for Opec oil would be 32.5 million barrels per day in 2018 — around 150,000 bpd lower than the group pumped last month, The International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

In May, Opec and non-Opec members agreed to extend production cuts of 1.8m barrels per day for a period of nine months until March 2018 but rising production from the U.S., Nigeria and Libya has undermined the oil cartel’s efforts to curb excess supply.

Rising U.S. output is expected to continue to cap upside in crude oil prices, as the EIA forecast total domestic production to average 9.9 million barrels a day in 2018, the highest annual average production in U.S. history.

Read our latest insights on: