It is kind of crazy that we’ve had one of the coldest weeks ever and yet we saw a big build in distillate inventories. Did everyone turn their heat off? Meanwhile, crude oil sold off earlier this week partly because of President Trump’s comments on the possibility of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, advises Phil Flynn, senior energy analyst at The PRICE Futures Group.
Welcome to the crazy world of oil trading and EIA oil inventories! The EIA said US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week. At 430.2 million barrels, US crude oil inventories are about 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.4 million barrels from last week and are slightly below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.9 million barrels last week and are about 8% below the five-year average for this time of year.
United States Oil Fund (USO)
Total products demand based on product supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels a day, up by 4.2% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, the motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.4 million barrels a day, down by 0.1% from the same period last year.
As for Trump, he said: “I think we’ll have a deal with Putin. Putin had no intention of settling the Ukraine war. Putin will have to make concessions on Ukraine. We’ll have good relationships with China, Russia, and the Middle East. Zelensky is coming to sign the deal.”
Oil prices also saw some downward pressure after Trump threatened Iraq with sanctions, which in turn had them settling the dispute. Iraq confirmed that: “A deal reached with Kurdistan to resume oil exports.”
Still, the crude oil market has a big upside threat with Iran. Trump is cracking down on those that do business with Iran, especially entities in the United Arab Emirates. This this comes as the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has sharply increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in recent weeks, according to a confidential United Nations report.
