Crude futures weaken on larger than expected gasoline build

28 December 2012 17:34  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Crude oil futures weakened on Friday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued its weekly stock report showing a much larger than expected build in gasoline stocks.

Before the report was issued, the front-month ICE Brent February contract was trading around $110.90/bbl, a gain of 10 cents/bbl compared to the previous close. The contract then weakened to $110.25/bbl after the report was issued.

Similarly, the front-month February NYMEX WTI contract was trading around $91.30/bbl, a gain of 43 cents/bbl against the previous settlement, before the report was issued. The contract then weakened to $90.70/bbl shortly after the stock report was published.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show a draw on crude stocks of about 1.90m bbl, a draw on distillate of around 900,000 bbl and a build on gasoline of around 500,000 bbl.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) figures were published late on Tuesday.

US Stocks (m bbl)	w/e 21/12/12
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	371.10	-0.60	370.50	-1.20
Gasoline	223.10	+3.80	215.80	+2.40
Distillate	119.40	+2.40	118.80	+2.90
Heating Oil	26.20	+0.80	26.20	+1.00
Jet Kerosene	38.60	-0.70	38.90	-1.20

By: Kawai Wong
+44 20 8652 3214

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