Oil futures slipped early Wednesday in New York after an inventory report showed an increase in supplies and as President Donald Trump reiterated a call for an increase to output among major producers to keep crude prices lower.
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. crude supplies rose by 2.9 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 21, according to sources. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had expected a fall of 2.2 million barrels in crude supplies.
November West Texas crude
CLX8, -0.65% gave up 16 cents to trade 0.2% lower at $72.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following its third session rise in a row and highest settlement since July 10 on Tuesday.
Global benchmark November Brent LCOX8, -0.60% slipped 22 cents, or 0.3%, to reach $81.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, after notching the highest finish for a front-month contract since Nov. 10, 2014, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Both crude contracts ended Tuesday’s session off session highs, mounting a retreat as President Trump at the United Nations assembly said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries must move to lower oil prices, threatening to take action if it didn’t.
Crude prices have been boosted in part by Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 Iran nuclear accord and renew sanctions aimed at sharply curtailing the major producer’s exports.
Over the weekend in Algiers, OPEC members and nonmember crude producers, known as the Joint OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee, delivered no formal plan to boost output to offset an estimated 2 million barrels a day of oil that estimated to likely be lost due to Iranian sanctions.
Some strategist and industry participants think that Trump could authorize the release of some crude stockpiles from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, to combat higher prices.
Still, experts have remained mostly bullish on the outlook for oil.
“It’s still a golden moment for oil and WTI is consolidating above $72 per barrel, well above the first support area placed at $71.30 [a barrel],” said Carlo Alberto De Casa, chief analyst at derivative trader ActivTrades, in a Wednesday research note.
“A clear break through $72.5 would open space for further rallies,” he said.
The API data also showed supplies of gasoline up 949,000 million barrels, but distillates fell by 944,000 million barrels, sources said.
Supply data from the Energy Information Administration will be released later in the session at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. S&P Global Platts analysts are also expecting the EIA report to show supply gains of 256,200 barrels in gasoline and 667,000 barrels in distillates.
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