Crude posts gains of $1/bbl despite unexpected US stock build

24 November 2010 16:08  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Crude oil gained about 45 cents/bbl on Wednesday, adding to earlier gains, when this week’s US stock figures showed a much smaller build in crude stocks than in the data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), despite forecasts that stocks would show a draw.

January NYMEX light-sweet crude futures rose from around $81.80/bbl before the figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) were published to hit a high of $82.25/bbl, a gain of $1/bbl from the previous close of $81.25/bbl

After having then having lost some ground, at 15:40 GMT January NYMEX crude was trading around $82.15/bbl, up $0.90/bbl from the previous close.

On the ICE futures exchange, January Brent also gained, rising from around $83.85/bbl before the EIA figures were published to hit a high of $84.34/bbl.

At 15:40 GMT, January Brent was trading around $84.30/bbl, up $1.05/bbl from the previous close of $83.25/bbl.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show a draw in crude stocks of about 2.1m bbl, a draw in distillate of around 1.2m bbl and a draw in gasoline of around 600,000 bbl.

The figures from the API were published late on 23 November.

US stocks (million bbl)	w/e 19.11.10
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	358.6	+1.0	357.7	+5.2
Gasoline	209.6	+1.9	214.1	-0.5
RFG	0.7	+0.1	0.3	-0.3
Distillate	158.3	-0.5	157.3	-0.3
Heating Oil	52.3	+0.5	52.1	+0.4
Jet Kerosene	44.7	-0.1	43.7	-0.2

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By: Tony Dillon
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