United States crude production fell in 2016, despite late-year growth

On March 14, 2017, the spread was at $3.20 per barrel. The session low was US$47.01, its lowest since Nov 30.

Yesterday, ICE data showed speculators reduced long positions on Brent by 66,683 contracts, the highest since November 2016.

March 22 US crude oil stocks rose to a fresh record last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, as a surge in imports and rising domestic production more than offset a hike in refinery runs. The assumption therefore is that higher rates equate with a higher dollar and that translates into lower crude oil prices.

Russian Federation was China’s second-biggest supplier with shipments of 4.29 million tonnes, or 1.12 million bpd, a gain of 4.5 percent on a year earlier and up 3.7 percent from January’s level of 1.08 million bpd.

Additionally, the high inventories are coming at a time when USA oil production is rising. However, Saudi figures are regarded as reliable and the discrepancy was seen as likely to have been caused by an increase in domestic demand not captured by outsiders reliant mainly on export data. But US crude couldn’t be exported previously.

Also weighing on the oil price is the excess supply in USA shale oil. The country’s oil output has increased to 646,000 barrels a day from 621,000 on Sunday due to more production from Waha Oil Co., he said. But in the case of WTI, it may be that newspaper headline-writer laziness more than anything else is responsible for propagating the too familiar shibboleth: the dollar is higher today, and that’s why crude is lower.

After various oil pipeline projects became functional in 2013, the spread gradually narrowed.

Crude oil accounted for almost 30 percent of Russia’s total exports in January, up from 25 percent in the same period a year ago, Rosstat data showed.

Benchmark ten-year treasury yields retreated to 2.475% as United States government bond prices rallied as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to push interest rates up too fast following last week’s lift in the funds rate.

When US WTI crude oil is cheaper than Brent crude oil, it means that US upstream producers receive less money than their global counterparts for each barrel of oil they produce.

“The increase for WTI was its largest annual price increase since 2009”, EIA reported.

Iraq’s willingness to play ball is also being closely watched, particularly in light of the continued insistence of oil minister Jabbar al-Luiebi that Iraq deserved an exemption from output cuts, similar to Libya and Nigeria.