Crude oil is hovering around the $100-mark as a winter storm in the US bolstered demand for energy in the world’s biggest oil consumer, yet an unexpected drop in US retail sales in January combined with a spike in weekly jobless claims raised doubts about growth.
Moreover, the US Energy Information Administration data showed this week that crude stockpiles dropped by 2.67 million barrels last week, distillates stockpiles fell by 731,000 barrels, while gasoline inventories slid by 1.85 million barrels last week.
“Many are expecting bigger gains in global oil demand this year, but I am not that optimistic because the economies in the United States and China have not recovered yet”, said Yusuke Seta from Newedge in Tokyo.
Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) yesterday showed that oil inventories in the developed world fell by 1.5 million barrels a day in the last three months of 2013, the biggest quarterly decline since 1999.
“I don`t think the optimistic oil demand growth scenario will last until the end of the year”, Seta added following the report released by the (IEA).
Losses however may be limited as Libya`s oil output dropped to 460,000 barrels a day on Thursday after protesters shut down pipelines from the El Wafa and El Sharara oilfields.
- WTI crude oil futures for March is trading around $ 99.80 a barrel after falling $0.55
- Brent futures for March settlement is trading around $ 108.27 a barrel after falling $0.25
- Natural gas is trading at $ 5.284 per cubic feet after rising 1.28%
- Gasoline is trading at $ 2.7667 per cubic feet after falling 0.38%
- Heating oil (diesel) is trading at $ 3.0381 a gallon after rising 0.24%