The oil industry’s leading monitoring groups give different estimates for the past week.
API inspection which was released on Tuesday, came at a 2.6 million barrel fall for the week ended April 2.
On the other hand, gasoline stocks and distillate products are again at an uptrend following a growth of 4.6 million barrels and 2.8 million barrels, respectively.
On the other hand, the Energy Information Administration’s results show otherwise.
The US private agency revealed a crude draw of 3.5 million during the same period, undermining the 900,000 barrel fall in the week prior.
Meanwhile, gasoline inventory estimate is organic with the American Petroleum Institute’s projection after coming at 4 million barrels.
This is a sharp hike compared to the 1.7 million decline incurred during the week ending March 26.
With the unprecedented inventory build, crude oil prices fell on Thursday’s Asian session.
The Brent crude futures contract decreased 0.33% to $66.95 a barrel. Meanwhile, the West Texas Intermediate futures eased below the $60.00 per barrel threshold.
The American benchmark is currently hovering at $59.57 per barrel, falling below the critical psychological support level for the first time in a while.
In the past weeks, both contracts managed to stay afloat amid the consequent updates from the US stimulus spending and infrastructure plan.
Traders have priced the leading contracts based on the projection of bettering the overall economic environment.
The latest hike in crude inventories raises concerns on the future of oil prices, with OPEC and allies expected to hike daily production on May and June periods.
Oil Price in the Summer
With the current state of things, commodity experts warned refiners to be careful in ramping up production ahead of the summer vacation.
Refineries in the United States expect bigger fossil fuel demand over the summer due to the increased activities among people.
Analysts noted that oil price had reached the highest run it could take in the short term. It may experience further retracements in the coming days.
According to energy experts, refiners should take production slow before gasoline stockpiles belly to record-high again.
This scenario might consolidate a downward pressure for overall pricing again, especially that the future remains vague.
Investors hope for a faster demand recovery around the world as the IMF upgrades growth projection for 2021 to 6.0%.
This is a significant hike from the 5.5% that the organization initially projected. Thus this increases hopes for greater demand amid the projected recovery.
