Crude oil futures have been seesawing in the middle of the trading week following the US government’s weekly supply report. Global energy markets have also been bullish as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will keep a lid on production for another month, and the latest forecasts suggest the international economy will expand better than initially projected. The key question is: Will US crude prices soar to $70?
April West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures tacked on $0.24, or 0.37%, to $64.25 per barrel at 18:07 GMT on Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. US crude prices have soared nearly 33% so far this year, but they have spiked 94% over the last 12 months.
Brent, the international benchmark for oil prices, is flirting with $68 midweek. May Brent crude futures picked up $0.29, or 0.43%, to $67.81 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. Brent prices have enjoyed similar results, rising 31% year-to-date and 89% since March of last year.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude domestic supplies ballooned 13.798 million barrels in the week ending March 5. The market had penciled in a gain of just 816,000 barrels. Oil stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub increased 526,000 barrels.
Distillate stocks decreased 5.504 million barrels, while gasoline inventories plummeted 11,869 million barrels.
On Friday, the Baker Hughes rig count will be released, and early estimates suggest that it will stay above 300. Last week, the total number of oil and gas rigs topped 400 for the second straight week.
Despite OPEC+ agreeing to rollover production cuts into April after last week’s monthly meeting, Russia’s Novak stated that it would increase April output by 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May. The firm stated that it does not need crude prices to climb any higher, adding that it is concentrating on market share.
Moreover, Reuters is reporting that Saudi Arabia has not met its promised to slash its output by one million bpd in February and March. Riyadh said that it would voluntarily cut production to offset the increase in output in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Libya.
In other energy commodities, April natural gas futures jumped $0.039, or 1.45%, to $2.735 per million British thermal units (btu). April gasoline futures advanced $0.0295, or 1.44%, to $2.0791 a gallon. April heating oil futures rose $0.0097, or 0.51%, to $1.9166 per gallon.