Investing.com – Oil prices remained little changed in afternoon trading Wednesday as the official government inventory statistics came in about in line with forecasts.
WTI futures was basically unchanged, down 2 cents at $60.85.
London Brent, the benchmark for global trade, edged up 7 cents to $66.17.
Oil inventories fell by 1.085 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 13, the EIA said. Analysts were looking for a drop of about 1.3 million barrels, according to the Investing.com consensus.
- Distillate stockpiles jumped by about 1.5 million barrels, much more than the forecast for a rise of about 300,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories climbed by about 2.5 million barrels, a little more than the 2.2 million rise expected.
“Refiners are back turning out products at full gusto and that’s causing steady buildups in gasoline and distillates, which don’t necessarily have runaway demand at this time of year,” Investing.com analysts Barani Krishnan said.
“The rock-steady refining throughput at north of 90% of capacity and crude imports unwavering at above 6.5 million barrels is sustaining the overproduction in fuel,” Krishan added.
More than 20 million barrels of gasoline have been produced over just six weeks and nearly 10 million barrels of distillates in four weeks.
“Basically, prices can stay in the green with gains here and there, so long as the market doesn’t get ahead of itself,” Krishnan said. “The net long position in WTI is already at a three-year-high and the market could be feeling top-heavy very soon.”