Investing.com - Crude oil prices held gains in Asia on Thursday despite slightly weaker Chinese industrial output figures as refinery throughput held strong and domestic crude output dipped.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery rose 0.35% to $56.80 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.29% to $62.88 a barrel.
China reported industrial production for November came in at a gain of 6.1%, compared with a 6.2% rise seen followed by retail sales which rose 10.2%, compared to a 10.3% rise expected and fixed asset investment came in up 7.2% as seen.
China's November crude runs reach 49.4 million metric tons, up 8.1% on year with January to November crude runs up 5.2% to 518.66 million metric tons even as domestic crude oil production fell 2.5% on year to 15.7 million metric tons with year-to-date output at 175.64 million metric tons, down 4.1%.
The Federal Reserve approved its third rate hike of 2017, and forecasts further rate hikes despite growing concerns over the slow pace of inflation.
Fed officials also expressed optimism in the economy, hiking their projection for economic growth in 2017 to 2.5%, while growth in 2018 was expected to rise to 2.5%, a 0.4% increase from the Fed’s September projections.
The report raised investor expectations for ongoing bullish economic growth, lifting sentiment on risker assets like equities.
Overnight, crude oil prices settled lower on Wednesday after data showing crude stockpiles fell for the second straight week failed to offset a larger-than-expected build in gasoline supplies.
Crude oil prices came under pressure following an Energy Information Agency (EIA) inventory report showing crude stockpiles fell more-than-estimated, but gasoline inventories rose for the second week in a row.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 5.1 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 8, beating expectations of a draw of 3.8 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – rose by 5.7 million barrels, well above expectations for rise of 2.5 million barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – fell by about 1.4 million barrels, above expectations for a build of 902,000 barrels.
Also weighing on crude prices was a rise in production to record highs as data showed weekly U.S. crude production jumped by 73,000 barrels a day to 9.78 million barrels a day.
The EIA’s report comes after OPEC revealed in its monthly report that production in November, fell by 133,000 bpd to 32.5 million bpd but revised upward its 2018 forecast for non-OPEC output.
OPEC forecasts non-OPEC supply growth to rise by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 990,000 bpd. The oil-cartel said, however, that the 2018 forecast for non-OPEC supply is “associated with considerable uncertainties”. US oil supply is now expected to grow by 1.1 million bpd in 2018, an upward revision of 180,000 barrels, according to the report.
Rising non-OPEC production has added to fears that oil producers not part of the production-cut agreement would continue to ramp up output, slowing the rebalancing in markets.