Recap: The oil market opened 6 cents lower and sold off to a low of $64.43 in overnight trading as it remained pressured following Wednesday’s sharp losses. However, the market bounced off its low and retraced some of its previous losses. The market rallied to $65.50 by mid-day, where it held resistance as an economic slowdown in China and emerging markets limited its recovery from its recent selloff. The currency crisis in Turkey has concerned investors over a contagion into other emerging market currencies. The crude market later breached its resistance and posted a high of $65.52 ahead of the close. The September WTI contract settled up 45 cents at $65.46 while the October Brent contract settled up 67 cents at $71.43. Meanwhile, the product markets ended mixed, with the heating oil market settling up 60 points at $2.0964 and the RB market settling down 1 cents at $1.9874.
Fundamental News: Genscape reported that crude oil inventories in the week ending Tuesday, August 14th increased by 1,151,172 barrels on the week and increased by 258,673 barrels from Friday, August 10th to 26,452,207 barrels.
The EPA said the US generated 1.37 billion ethanol (D6) blending credits in July, up from 1.26 billion credits in June. It also reported that it generated 310 million biodiesel (D4) blending credits in July compared with 318 million in June.
The Unite union said workers at Total’s North Sea oil and gas platforms, Alwyn, Elgin and Dunbar, will begin a 24-hour strike on August 20th.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Russia is working on retaliatory measures against the US after it imposed sanctions on a Russian company for aiding North Korea. The US sanctioned Profinet Ptd Ltd and its director general for providing port services on at least six occasions to North Korean-flagged ships.
Iraq exported an average of 3.6 million bpd from its southern oilfields so far in August. Iraq exported 3.543 million bpd of crude in July.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate reported that Norway’s preliminary oil output in July increased to 1.525 million bpd of oil equivalent from 1.487 million bpd of oil equivalent in June.
Japan’s Fuji Oil bought 2.5 million barrels of Middle East crude for October loading via a tender and is seeking more oil to replace Iranian supplies.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported the country’s oil production in July fell by 2.6% on the year to 15.855 million tons. It also reported that the China’s gasoline output in July increased to a record high of 11.89 million tons. It was up 11.9% on the year. China’s diesel output in July fell by 2% on the year to 14.46 million tons while its fuel output fell by 2.6% on the year to 2.1 million tons and its kerosene output increased by 19.6% on the year to 4.14 million tons.
Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining and storage hub in the week ending August 16th fell by 11.75% on the week but increased by 0.33% on the year to 901,000 tons. Gasoil stocks fell by 2.91% on the week and by 13.6% on the year to 2.503 million tons while fuel oil stocks increased by 0.57% on the week and by 24.91% on the year to 1.058 million tons.
Early Market Call – as of 8:20 AM EDT
WTI – Sep $65.96, up 50 cents
RBOB – Sep $1.9990, up 1.21 cents
HO – Sep $2.1196, up 2.30 cents
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