U.S. Oil Inventories Fell Month-on-month, International Oil Prices Rose Significantly

U.S. commercial oil inventories fell month-on-month last week, and international oil prices rose significantly on the 5th.

As of the close of the day, the price of light crude oil futures for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.14 to close at $50.75 a barrel, an increase of 2.30%. London Brent crude oil futures for April delivery rose $1.32 to close at $55.28 a barrel, an increase of 2.45%.

Data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on the 5th showed that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories were 435 million barrels last week, an increase of 3.4 million barrels from the previous month, and about 2% lower than the average level of the past five years. During the same period, U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 100,000 barrels month-on-month, distillate inventories fell by 1.5 million barrels month-on-month, and propane and propylene inventories increased by 600,000 barrels month-on-month. Including commercial crude oil, refined petroleum products, propane and propylene, U.S. commercial oil inventories fell by 900,000 barrels last week from the previous week.

The data also showed that the average daily crude oil processing volume of U.S. refineries last week was 16 million barrels, an increase of 48,000 barrels from the previous month; the refinery operating rate was 87.4%, higher than the previous week's 87.2%; the average daily crude oil import volume was 6.6 million barrels. , a month-on-month decrease of 45,000 barrels; average daily crude oil production was 12.9 million barrels, a month-on-month decrease of 100,000 barrels.

Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group, said that although OPEC and Russia failed to announce the specific amount of expanded production cuts on the 4th, which disappointed the market, media reports indicate that British research institutions may soon develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus. Boosted market sentiment.

A report released by Austria's JBC Energy on the 5th predicts that global oil demand will decrease by 250,000 barrels per day in 2020 due to the new coronavirus. Global oil demand is expected to increase year-on-year by 750,000 barrels per day this year.

JBC Energy said that as some Chinese buyers indicated that they had stopped purchasing crude oil or were preparing to resell the crude oil they had purchased, market liquidity was insufficient and the spot crude oil market had been adjusted excessively. Due to poor benchmark refining profits in Asia, Middle East oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia need to significantly lower their official sales prices (OSP) to Asia in the near future to provide necessary support for the refining economy.