Friday, 30 January 2015

Crude oil trading outlook: futures head for seventh monthly loss amid glut

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude were headed for the longest monthly losing streak since January 2009 as rising US crude oil output and inventories exacerbated worries of a global supply overhang at times of slowing economic growth. A firm dollar also weighed.
US crude for delivery in March rose 0.22% to $44.63 per barrel by 8:30 GMT, having shifted in a narrow daily range of $44.74-$44.43. The contract rose 0.18% yesterday to $44.53, but not before it fell to $43.58, the lowest since March 2009.
Meanwhile on the ICE, Brent for settlement in the same month slid 0.22% to $49.02 a barrel, ranging between $49.24 and $48.76 for the day. The European benchmark crude rose by 1.36% to $49.13 on Thursday, settling at a premium of $4.60 to its US counterpart. The gap narrowed to $4.39 on Friday.
Oil prices extended losses for a seventh month after US production surged to the highest in more than three decades, while OPEC stood firm and denied an obligation to normalize prices by cutting its own output. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, who earlier in January succeeded the deceased King Abdullah, kept Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi at his post, signaling he will adopt no change to the kingdom’s oil policy. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s leading producer, steered the group into retaining its production quota at 30 million bpd at a November 27th meeting in Vienna, in a push to defend market share and curb US shale supply.
US crude output jumped by 27 000 barrels per day to 9.213 million bpd in the week ended January 23rd, a record for weekly statistics tracked since January 1983. The Energy Information Administration also reported that US crude supplies surged by 8.874 million barrels in the week ended January 23rd to 406.7 million, the highest on weekly data spanning back to August 1982.
Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub rose to 38.9 million barrels, from 36.8 million during the preceding period. This was an eight consecutive weekly jump, pushing supplies to the highest since January 2014.
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