Data shows surprise crude oil build

Oil was down Thursday morning in Asia, dropping for a second session as US crude oil supply data showed a surprise build.

Brent oil futures were down 0.64% to $80.56 by 11:21 PM ET (3:21 AM GMT) and WTI futures fell 0.98% to $76.67.

“Commercial stockpiles of crude rose… last week, according to EIA data. Stockpiles of gasoline also surged raising concerns of weaker demand,” ANZ said in a note.

Wednesday’s US crude oil supply data from the US Energy Information Administration showed a build of 2.346 million barrels in the week to Oct. 1. Forecasts prepared by Investing.com predicted a 418,000-barrel draw, while a 4.578-million-barrel build was recorded during the previous week.

Crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute released the day before, showed a build of 951,000 barrels.

The black liquid rallied to its highest since 2014 during the past week as a global energy crunch could increase demand as the northern hemisphere winter approaches. Saudi Aramco (SE:2222) said the crunch has already boosted consumption, while the US is reportedly considering the release of emergency oil reserves.

However, “high energy prices are mostly centered around supply-side issues and they do not look like they will persist beyond winter,” Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. economist Howie Lee told Bloomberg.

“Where prices are at right now, I think they look reasonable, but I still have my doubts about $100 oil.”

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (<a href=’https://theenergyyear.com/companies-institutions/opec/’>OPEC+) said earlier in the week that it would not deviate from its plans for a gradual increase in oil output.

First published on Investing.com