US Inventories Decline, Oil Prices Jump

News24xx.com - Oil prices rose on Thursday (12/19/2019). This is supported by news of crude oil inventories in the United States (US) which is also down and expectations of an improved demand outlook.

Quoted from Xinhua, Friday (12/20/2019), West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January delivery closed 29 cents higher to 61.22 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery rose 37 cents to 66.54 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The US Energy Information Agency reports that US crude oil inventories fell during the week ending December 13.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, US commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell 1.1 million barrels from the previous week to 446.8 million barrels.

The market also received support from hopes of improving prospects for crude oil demand amid advances in global trade.

Experts note that production cuts by the world's major oil producers also contributed to the increase.

Earlier this month, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to increase production cuts by an additional 500,000 barrels per day, bringing the total cut to 1.7 million barrels per day.

This additional adjustment will take effect on January 1, 2020 and is subject to full compliance by each participating country. OPEC, Russia and other producers have limited oil production since 2017 to drive prices.

 

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