BLBG:Oil Trades Near One-Week Low as U.S. Crude Stockpiles Increase
Oil traded near the lowest price in a week in New York after an industry-funded report showed rising stockpiles in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude consumer.
Futures were little changed after slipping 0.6 percent yesterday. U.S. inventories gained 1.96 million barrels last week, data from the American Petroleum Institute indicated. An Energy Department report today may show supplies increased by 350,000 barrels to 374.8 million, according to the median estimate of 11 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
“Stockpiles are above two-to-three year averages, so there’s ample supply,” said Jonathan Barratt, the chief executive officer of Barratt’s Bulletin, a commodity newsletter in Sydney. “The market is still ignoring the builds. I would look at it as a seasonal adjustment, as we’re expecting winter to be cooler than last year.”
Crude for January delivery was at $87.13 a barrel, down 5 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:47 p.m. Singapore time. The contract decreased 56 cents yesterday to $87.18, the lowest since Nov. 20. Prices are down 12 percent this year.
Brent for January settlement rose 20 cents to $110.07 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $22.94 to West Texas Intermediate, compared with $22.69 yesterday.
Fuel Supplies
Oil in New York is in a downtrend channel going back about eight weeks on the daily technical chart, signaling price advances probably can’t be sustained, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The upper boundary of this channel is around $88.40 a barrel today, representing technical resistance, where sell orders tend to be clustered.
U.S. gasoline supplies climbed 2.28 million barrels last week, the API said. They are forecast to rise 900,000 barrels in the Energy Department report, according to the Bloomberg survey. Distillate stockpiles, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, increased 268,000 barrels compared with a projected gain in the government figures of 500,000.
The API collects stockpile information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with the Energy Department for its weekly survey.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
