After three straight sessions of gains, oil futures started to decline on Thursday.
market forces
Prices should have decreased the day before, he claimed, if the pessimistic oil supply statistics had been to blame.
For the seventh consecutive week, U.S. crude stockpiles increased by 2.4 million barrels, according to data released on Wednesday by the EIA. The number contradicted a 2.2 million barrel reduction apparently seen by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade body, and was somewhat higher than the average expectation of analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
However, according to a report by ING commodity analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey, “high refinery runs during the week may have supplied support to the market.”
The ING strategists said that refinery utilization climbed by 2.2 percentage points to 87.9%, the highest level so far this year, while noting that greater refinery runs contributed to significant rises in product stocks. Stocks of fuel oil were up 5 million barrels in gasoline and 2.9 million barrels in distillate.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration stated on Thursday that domestic natural gas supplies decreased by 217 billion cubic feet for the week ending February 3. This news caused natural gas futures to continue to trade higher.
According to a study by S&P Global Commodity Insights, the average expert had predicted a drop of 197 billion cubic feet.