Oil slips after large US crude stock build
By Emily Chow
SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Oil prices fell on Thursday after a larger-than-expected jump in U.S. crude inventories raised doubts about the strength of demand in the world's largest economy and top oil consumer.
Brent crude futures fell 38 cents, or 0.5%, to $81.22 a barrel at 0837 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 43 cents, or 0.6%, to $76.21 a barrel.
Both contracts lost more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday, pressured by the rise in U.S. crude inventories, as refining dropped to its lowest levels since December 2022.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said U.S. crude inventories jumped by 12 million barrels to 439.5 million barrels in the week to Feb. 9, far exceeding analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.6 million-barrel rise.
While the stock build made traders question demand, some analysts said it was largely driven by lower refinery utilisation rates, especially as BP (NYSE:BP)'s 435,000 barrels per day Whiting plant in Indiana is shut.
«The continued outage at BP's Whiting refinery will have contributed to lower run rates, along with some other refinery maintenance. Lower refinery run rates meant that gasoline stocks declined,» the analysts said.
On the supply side, Kazakhstan said it will compensate for its oil overproduction in January within the next four months, in line with its OPEC+ commitments. Iraq also said it will review its production and address any excess output above its OPEC+ voluntary cuts in the coming four months, if found.
ANZ analysts in a note on Thursday looked ahead to the March meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries when the group and allies (OPEC+) will decide whether to extend output curbs.
«Any signs that
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