MW:Oil slips; weekly supplies up less than forecast
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Benchmark U.S. crude-oil prices edged lower Wednesday in electronic trade, as data that weekly U.S. oil supplies rose less than expected were offset by a report of higher crude output by Saudi Arabia.
Crude oil for June delivery CLM3 +0.14% slipped 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $95.55 a barrel in Asian trading hours, slightly paring a loss after China reported it swung to an $18.16 billion trade surplus in April as exports surged.
Oil futures were lower late Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute said crude supplies rose 680,000 barrels for the week ended May 3. The trade association’s figure was well below expectations for a rise of 1.9 million barrels in a Platts survey of analysts.
The API data came ahead of the more closely watched report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, due Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern time.
Oil closed Tuesday’s regular session down by 54 cents, or 0.6%, after a report that oil production rose 1.8% in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude, in April from a month earlier, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report citing two people familiar with the matter.
Saudi Arabia supplied the market with 9.2 million barrels of oil a day last month, up from 9.15 million barrels a day in March, the report said.
Crude prices fell during April by as much as 11%, hurt in part by worries about sluggish demand at a time of ample U.S. petroleum supplies. Oil prices last month managed to come off their lows, ending down by 3.9%.
The API late Tuesday also said gasoline inventories fell 186,000 barrels, and distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil, rose by 1.1 million barrels. Analysts were looking for a decline of 750,000 barrels in gasoline inventories and a rise of 1 million barrels for distillate supplies.
June gasoline RBM3 -0.23% on Wednesday shed 1 cent, or 0.2%, to trade at $2.83 a gallon, and June heating oil HOM3 -0.16% lost 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.92 a gallon.
June natural gas NGM13 -0.36% shed 1 cent, or 0.4%, to $3.91 per million British thermal units.
The EIA, in its monthly Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook report, said Tuesday it expects natural-gas spot prices to average $3.80 per million British thermal units this year, up 27 cents from a previous estimate.
Carla Mozee is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.
