Crude prices rise in anticipation of statistics from U.S.

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    World oil prices slightly increased on July 12, as investors are waiting for the publication of statistics from the U.S. on oil reserves for the week.

    Brent crude futures up 1.6 percent, at $48.28 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $45.82 per barrel, up 1.7 percent, Reuters reported.

    Market participants are waiting for data on oil stocks in the U.S., which will be published on July 12. Analysts predict a decline in inventories for the week ended on July 7, by 0.57 percent, or 2.850 million barrels, to 500.05 million barrels, according to RIA Novosti.

    American Petroleum Institute (API) said that inventories fell by 8.1 million barrels, to 495 million barrels.

    The U.S. Energy Department reported a decrease in U.S. oil reserves (excluding the strategic reserve) for the week ended on June 30 by 6.3 million barrels, or 1.2 percent – to 502.9 million barrels.

    Meanwhile, the Energy Information Agency (EIA), in its short-term forecast published on July 12, forecasts the country’s production in 2018 to reach 9.9 million barrels per day, which is lower than the June estimate of 10.01 million barrels.

    The EIA maintained the forecast for oil production in the U.S. in 2017 at 9.33 million barrels per day.

    “Brent and WTI spot staged an impressive… rally… as the API reported a massive 8.1 million barrel drawdown in inventories,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore.

    OPEC is scheduled to publish the assessment of June production based on secondary sources in its monthly oil market report on July 12.

    The report is expected to show that Saudi Arabia’s oil production in June rose to 10.07 million barrels per day, putting it about 12,000 barrels per day over its OPEC output target.

    Output by all 13 OPEC members in June rose to about 32.47 million barrels per day, according to the average assessments of secondary sources OPEC uses to monitor its output. That would be up 330,000 barrels per day from OPEC’s published May figure.

    That means compliance in June is 97 percent, meanwhile in May this figure was above 100 percent, according to an OPEC calculation.

    OPEC agreed with some other major exporters to cut output about 1.8 million barrels per day until March 2018. Next meeting of a monitoring committee on the oil production cut will be held in St. Petersburg on July 24.