Increased US Oil Reserves Press WTI Prices

By : Abraham Sihombing And Aldo Bella Putra | Friday, September 08 2017 - 16:00 IWST

Fasilitas pengolahan minyak Exxonmobil Cepu Limited (Ist)

INDUSTRY.co.id - New York - The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures in New York futures, the United States (US) reported Reuters decreased 0.1% or about 7 cents to position US $ 49.09 per barrel in the closing session on Thursday ( 78/09/2017) evening, or Friday (08/09/2017) morning West Indonesia time.

Reuters informed, the decline in prices is caused by an increase in US crude oil reserves after the operation of various oil refineries in the US after the Harvey storm.

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil prices rose 0.5% or 29 cents to US $ 54.49 per barrel. It was the highest closing price since April 18, 2017. The increase in Brent crude prices occurred for two consecutive trading days.

According to the Energy Information Agency (EIA), US weekly crude oil reserves increased 4.6 million barrels over the past week. The increase exceeded analysts' earlier forecast of 4 million barrels.

The EIA also informed, the US refinery utilization rate fell 16.9% to 79.7% when Harvey storms struck along the US coast. The percentage is the lowest since 2010.

John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC's energy hedge fund in New York, argues that Harvey's storm has damaged the recent trend in US crude inventories from the downward trend in crude oil inventories to the possibility of an upward trend in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the re-operation of oil refineries in the US will continue to push up US crude oil reserves in the future.

The Gulf Coast facility is slowly recovering from the devastating effects of Harvey, who attacked Louisiana and Texas nearly two weeks ago, shutting down key infrastructure in the heart of the US oil and gas industry.

About 3.8 million barrels of daily refining capacity, or 20% of total America, was closed on Wednesday (06/09/2017), although a number of refineries and oil handling ports were operating again. At the same time, prices are pressured by Hurricane Irma's concerns in the Caribbean could disrupt crude shipments into and out of the US. (Abraham Sihombing)