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▲Photo = Naver Finance |
[에너지경제신문 유예닮 기자] International oil prices rose as oil-producing countries continued to maintain production cuts despite the increase in crude oil stocks in the United States.
On the 3rd (local time) on the New York Commercial Exchange, the price of West Texas crude (WTI) for April closed at $61.28, up 2.56% ($1.53) per barrel.
The April Brent crude on the London ICE Futures Exchange closed at $64.07, up 2.19% ($1.37) per barrel from the battlefield.
Investors watched the OPEC+ meeting and the US crude oil stocks.
Reuters, citing a source, reported, “Oil-producing countries are considering ways to continue production cuts at the current level in April.”
This is contrary to the prevailing expectations that OPEC+ will decide to increase production of 500,000 barrels a day after this meeting.
Oil prices generally fell this week due to the possibility of production increase in oil producing countries, but turned to an uptrend due to the news of maintaining production cuts.
However, OPEC+ plans to finalize its April oil production policy at the general meeting next day, so we are not sure whether to cut production. At the meeting on that day, the OPEC + Technical Committee also did not make recommendations related to the oil production policy.
U.S. crude oil inventory indicators reported a surge in inventory.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced last week that crude oil inventories increased by about 21.5 million barrels. This is a massive increase, unlike the 700,000 barrel decline in the market forecast compiled by the Wall Street Journal (WSH).
The size of this inventory increase in the United States was the largest ever.
International oil prices temporarily fell shortly after the announcement of the crude oil inventory index, but the impact was limited, such as a rebound immediately.
Meanwhile, the US refinery utilization rate last week was 56.0%, lower than the previous week’s 68.6%.
The plunge in petroleum product inventory due to a disruption in the operation of refinery facilities also provided support for oil prices.
Last week, gasoline inventories fell by about 13.62 million barrels, and refined oil inventories fell by about 9.72 million barrels.
Oil market experts predicted that oil prices will be set in the future according to OPEC+’s decision that will take place the next day.
Axi’s senior global market strategist Stefan Innes said, “The push and pull game is in progress.”
In addition, he said, “Even if Saudi Arabia delays the withdrawal of production cuts by 1 million barrels, it seems likely that other oil-producing countries such as Russia will push for an increase in production of 500,000 barrels.” It was elaborated.