Investing.com – Oil prices were mixed on Thursday as data from the Energy Informational Administration (EIA) showed the U.S. crude inventory level unexpectedly hiked by 6.8 million barrels in the week ending Aug 10. Analysts previously forecasted stockpiles would fall by 2.5 million barrels.
Brent Oil Futures for October delivery edged up by 0.42% to $71.03 per barrel at 12:52AM ET (04:52 GMT) after hitting four-month low in the previous session, while Crude Oil WTI Futures for September delivery dropped by 0.06% to $64.97 a barrel.
“The imports of crude oil are just remarkable. That we were able to build that much crude oil in inventory in the face of a 98% refinery run rate speaks volumes about the burst of supply that hit the market last week, said John Kilduff, founder of energy hedge fund Again Capital.
Meanwhile, Beijing said on Thursday that it will send a delegation to the U.S. for trade talks in an attempt to alleviate tensions between the two countries.
Chinese oil importers have not loaded crude oil from the U.S. since the start of this month, according to Reuters, compared with 300,000 barrels per day in June and July,
“Any further escalation in the trade conflict between them is clearly an important downside risk and could lead to a further slowdown in oil demand growth for 2019, leading to downward pressure on oil prices,” said Sushant Gupta, research director at Wood Mackenzie.
In other news, Libya’s crude oil production has exceeded 1 million barrels per day for the first time since June, after port blockades and a kidnap incident triggered production outages 670,000 barrels per day before, according to S&P Global Platts.