Oil prices rebounded in the early trading session today, with the ICE Brent front-month contract trading above $81/bbl following a larger-than-expected oil inventory withdrawal reported by API. If confirmed by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), this would be the seventh weekly decline in a row. Geopolitical risks in the Middle East remain elevated, with the market allocating an increased risk premium for oil because of uncertainty over any Iranian response to Israel, ING’s commodity strategists Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Global supply to increase by 730k b/d in 2024

“The API reports that US crude oil inventories fell significantly by 5.2m barrels last week, compared to the market expectations for a draw of just 0.9m barrels. Crude stockpiles at Cushing decreased by 2.3m barrels. Product inventories remained mixed, with gasoline stocks falling by 3.7m barrels while distillate inventories rose by 612k barrels. The more widely followed EIA inventory report will be released later today.”

“The IEA's monthly oil market report was somewhat bearish, with the agency slightly revising down its demand growth forecasts for next year. It now expects global oil demand to grow by 950k b/d in 2025, down 30k b/d from their previous estimates. This revision lower is largely due to the impact of weaker Chinese consumption. However, the IEA left the demand estimates unchanged at 970k b/d for 2024.”