Oil on Friday declined for the second week as signs that supplies remain plentiful offset optimism over the signing of a US-China trade agreement.
Futures in New York were little changed, but ended the week 0.9 percent lower.
Refiners have turned a crude surplus into a product surplus with US gasoline and distillate stocks expanding by more than 40 million barrels over the past three weeks.
The build overshadowed Beijing’s commitment to spending US$52.4 billion in additional purchases of US energy in the next two years as part the “phase one” trade deal between the world’s biggest economies.
“There is a positive vibe after the trade deal, but the fact is we are so oversupplied it’s going to be difficult to get the market up past US$60,” Mizuho Securities USA LLC futures director Bob Yawger said in New York.
Before the landmark US-China accord was signed, prices reached a six-week low on Wednesday after US government data showed that petroleum inventories in the country expanded to the highest levels since September last year.
Supplies at the critical commercial storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose for the first time in 10 weeks.
US crude production continues to set new records, hitting 13 million barrels per day earlier this month.
Oil drilling rose for the first time in four weeks, led by the Permian Basin, indicating that oil supplies are poised for more gains in the near term.
West Texas Intermediate futures for delivery next month settled up US$0.02 at US$58.54 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent for March settlement rose US$0.23 cents to US$64.85 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London after climbing 1 percent on Thursday. That put its premium over West Texas Intermediate for the same month at US$6.27 per barrel.
The market might have to contend with another week of inventory builds as fog on the US Gulf Coast has intermittently suspended marine traffic and slowed exports, Lipow Oil Associates LLC president Andy Lipow said in Houston, Texas.
The International Energy Agency on Thursday said that global markets have a “solid base” of inventories and climbing supplies from outside the OPEC cartel, even as elevated tensions in the Middle East endanger production from Iraq and elsewhere.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline fell US$0.01 to US$1.64 per gallon and heating oil declined US$0.01 to US$1.86 per gallon, while natural gas fell US$0.07 to US$2 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Additional reporting by AP
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last