Oil down 3rd day as industry data suggests epic US crude build
Investing.com — Crude prices fell for a third day in a row as trading began in Asia Thursday, responding to a report by industry group API that the largest weekly crude stockpile build in eight months may have taken place in the United States last week.
After Monday’s 4% price rally on the back of the worst outbreak in decades of fighting between Israeli and Palestine troops that raised concerns about oil exports from the Middle East, crude markets have taken on an unnatural, eerie calm in the past two days as it became clear the market may have overreacted to the crisis.
As such, crude prices gave back more than 3% of those gains in the last 48 hours, particularly after a Reuters report that Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm had informed at least four refiners in North Asia that it would supply them with the full contractual volumes nominated for November.
The pledge by Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) ran against the very grain of what Riyadh had been publicly telling global oil markets — that its priority was about keeping the market tight, not assuring that supplies were generously available whenever needed.
On Wednesday, the optics for the oil market worsened further after API, or the American Petroleum Institute, reported that US crude oil stocks possibly rose by nearly 13 million barrels last week in what could be the highest build since February.
By Thursday afternoon in Singapore, New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for delivery in November was down 31 cents, or 0.4%, at $83.18 per barrel by 12:40 in Singapore (00:40 Eastern US Time). From Monday’s high of $87.24, the benchmark US crude benchmark had fallen to a low of $82.78 in the last session.
“Going into the new trading day, moving below $82.35
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