Nymex Overview: Crude, Product Prices Fall Despite Bullish Inventory Report -- OPIS
December 28 2023 - 11:40AM
Dow Jones News
Crude oil and refined product futures were all showing losses
Thursday morning despite surprisingly bullish data on U.S. energy
supply and demand released late in the morning.
Crude oil losses were approaching $1/bbl at about 11:30 a.m. ET,
with the February contract for U.S. benchmark West Texas
Intermediate crude sinking 84cts to $73.27/bbl, about 70cts off the
morning's low. The March contract was 79cts lower to $73.55/bbl.
The February contract for European benchmark Brent crude was $1.01
lower to $78.64/bbl, while March prices were $1.05 in the red to
$78.49/bbl.
Refined product contracts were also off morning lows, but well
away from earlier highs.
The January NYMEX RBOB contract was 2.1cts lower to $2.1340/gal,
about 1.5cts above the morning's low, while February prices shed
2.26cts to $2.1393/gal. The front-month ULSD contract stepped back
1.53cts to $2.6086/gal, about 1.40cts off the low, while March
prices were 1.43cts lighter to $2.5882/gal.
Earlier in the morning the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) released its weekly Petroleum Status Report,
which showed a 6.9 million bbl decline in U.S. crude oil
inventories--due mostly to a large end-of-year drop in Gulf Coast
supplies that appeared aimed at reducing tax liability.
Gasoline inventories fell by 600,000 bbl, placing supplies 2%
below seasonal averages, while distillate inventories rose by
800,000 bbl, with stocks 9% lower than where they normally are this
time of year.
U.S. refinery utilization was at 93.3%, up about a percentage
point from the previous week.
EIA also reported strong gasoline demand for the holiday week
ending Dec. 22 at nearly 9.17 million b/d, up about 400,000 b/d on
the week. Distillate demand also rose, at 3.97 million b/d about
150,000 b/d higher than the previous week.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which
is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from
Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by
Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 28, 2023 12:25 ET (17:25 GMT)
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