Oil futures rose on Wednesday, finding support for tight gas supplies ahead of the start of the summer driving season in the United States over Memorial Day weekend.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate Crude for July Delivery CL.1,
+ 1.07% CL00,
+ 1.07% CLN22,
+ 1.07%
it rose $ 1.43, or 1.3%, to $ 111.20 a barrel on the New York Stock Exchange. -
July Brent crude BRNN22,
+ 0.91% ,
the world benchmark index rose $ 1.21, or 1.1%, to $ 114.77 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
June gasoline RBM22,
+ 1.67%
rose 1.7% to $ 3.753 a gallon, while in June HOM22,
+ 1.78%
rose 1.9% to $ 3.855 a gallon. -
June NGM22 natural gas futures,
+ 0.84%
rose 1.4% to $ 8.922 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
The American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday afternoon that U.S. crude stockpiles rose 567,000 barrels last week, according to market sources. Gasoline supplies fell 4.2 million barrels, while distillate supplies fell 949,000 barrels.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s official storage data is due to be released Wednesday morning. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights expect crude oil to show an increase of 100,000 barrels, while gasoline supplies are down 500,000 barrels and distillates are up 600,000 barrels.
“The tightening of the U.S. gasoline market will raise supply concerns as we enter the driving season. The tightness in the U.S. is pulling gasoline out of other places, including Europe, which also seems to be growing. adjusted, “Warren Patterson, ING’s head of commodity strategy, said in a statement.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was asked, speaking to reporters in Louisiana, whether the Biden administration was lifting restrictions on oil exports to put a cap on gasoline prices. and diesel. “I can confirm that the president is not taking any tools off the table,” Granholm told Reuters.
“So far, the US administration has been reluctant to follow this route and has instead focused on Strategic Oil Reserve emissions,” Patterson said. While the release of reserves “may offer some relief to crude oil prices, it may do little to alleviate gas shortages if the bottleneck is on the side of refining,” he said.
The European Union continues to negotiate a ban on imports of Russian oil and other energy sources, with a meeting of EU leaders later this month less likely to produce a final agreement, Patterson said.