BLBG: Oil Rises First Time in Five Days on China Crude Imports
Oil rose for the first time in five days as China’s net crude imports climbed to a six-month high in November and German exports unexpectedly increased.
Prices advanced from a three-week low as China bought the equivalent of 5.68 million barrels a day more than it exported, the most since May. German exports gained in October on shipments to countries outside Europe. OPEC will probably leave its production quota unchanged when it meets Dec. 12, a Bloomberg survey showed.
“The market’s focus right now is the strong imports data from China and that seems to be giving oil a boost,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago. “The Germany exports data also helped the market.”
Crude for January delivery rose 47 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $86.40 a barrel at 9:23 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped Dec. 7 to $85.93, the lowest close since Nov. 15. Prices are down 13 percent this year.
Brent for January settlement climbed 86 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $107.88 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
China, the world’s second-largest oil consuming country after the U.S., bought 23.25 million metric tons of crude more than it exported last month, according to figures released on the website of the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs today. That’s the equivalent of 5.68 million barrels a day, up 3 percent from a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
China’s Processing
The country processed a record 41.61 million tons of crude in November, equivalent to 10.2 million barrels a day, government figures showed yesterday.
“The China news is quite supportive for the oil price,” said Rich Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of Iitrader.com in Chicago
Exports in Germany, the biggest oil consumer in the European Union, increased 0.3 percent from September adjusted for work days and seasonal changes, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast a 0.3 percent decline, according to the median of 14 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
“Germany’s export growth was encouraging as expectations were for a contraction,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said by phone. “Germany is the key driver of the European economy.”
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will probably maintain its production quota at 30 million barrels a day of oil, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 18 analysts.
“Prices are fine and customers are happy,” Saudi Arabia’s Petroleum Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in an interview in Doha on Dec. 7. The kingdom is the largest producer in the 12-member group, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s crude.
To contact the reporters on this story: Moming Zhou in New York at mzhou29@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets in New York at dstets@bloomberg.net.
