BS: Oil Prices Rebound From Six-Month Low as Gasoline Climbs
West Texas Intermediate crude rose from a six-month low as gasoline rose the most in a week after an industry report showed inventories of the fuel dropped.
Gasoline stockpiles fell 3.6 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 1, the American Petroleum Institute said, according to Bain Energy. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected the Energy Information Administration will say today that supply of the fuel was unchanged. The API also said crude inventories decreased 5.5 million barrels.
“The API stats are very supportive,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks & Opinions LLC in Houston. “You have this big drop in gasoline. You have the large draw in crude inventories. We can expect something big in today’s EIA report.”
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WTI for September delivery gained 43 cents to $97.81 a barrel at 9:27 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped to $97.38 yesterday, the lowest close since Feb. 5. The volume of all futures traded was about 32 percent below the 100-day average for the time of day.
Gasoline futures climbed 2.09 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $2.7328 a gallon on the Nymex after sinking to a six-month low yesterday.
Brent for September settlement rose 34 cents to $104.95 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It closed at $104.61 a barrel yesterday, the lowest since Nov. 7. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $7.13 to WTI on the ICE. It closed at $7.23 yesterday.
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Gasoline Stockpiles
Gasoline stockpiles climbed to 218.2 million barrels in the week ended July 25, the most since March, EIA data show.
U.S. crude inventories may have declined to 365.8 million barrels last week, according to the Bloomberg survey. Supplies slid to a five-month low in the week ended July 25.
“The market is trying to stabilize,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “Selling pressure is evaporating after the API report.”
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WTI dropped 3.6 percent from July 29 through yesterday after CVR Energy Inc. shut the Coffeyville refinery in Kansas following a fire, reducing purchases from Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures. The API said supplies at the hub climbed 51,000 barrels last week, according to Bain.
To contact the reporter on this story: Moming Zhou in New York at mzhou29@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net Charlotte Porter
