The United States earlier announced the release of the largest strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) in history, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) insisted on the original plan to increase production slightly in May, and crude oil futures prices both closed on Thursday (31st). Low, WTI fell 7% to its lowest level since mid-March, but still rose 33% in the first quarter.
energy commodity prices
- Delivered in May WTI CrudeFutures fell $7.54, or 7 percent, to settle at $100.28 a barrel, according toDow JonesThe futures contract rose 4.8% in April and more than 33% in the first quarter, according to market data, which was the lowest close since March 16.
- Brent crude for May delivery fell $5.54, or 4.9%, to settle at $107.91 a barrel after gaining nearly 6.9% in April and nearly 39% in the first quarter. The most actively traded June contract fell $6.73, or 6 percent, to settle at $104.71 a barrel.
- Natural gas futures for May delivery rose 0.7% to settle at $5.642 per million Btu, after rising more than 28% in April and more than 51% in the first quarter.
- Gasoline futures for April delivery fell 4.1% to settle at $3.19 a gallon, after rising 14% in April and 43% in the first quarter.
- Delivered in AprilThermal Fuel FuturesPrices fell 3.1% to settle at $3.691 a gallon after the futures contract rose 22.5% in April and more than 58% in the first quarter.
market driving force
US President Joe Biden announced that 1 million barrels a day of oil will be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months, for a total of more than 180 million barrels.
Marshall Steeves, energy market analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights, said: “This is essentially a temporary measure to minimize the rebound in oil prices in the spring, and in order to achieve this goal, oil supply may increase slightly, thereby Keep oil prices commensurately low.”
Steeves said the Russian-Ukrainian war remained a major consideration, and the possibility of lost Russian production would be a driving factor.
Goldman Sachs’ team of commodity analysts believes that the U.S. plan to unleash strategic oil reserves could face logistical challenges and that congestion on the Gulf Coast could delay shale production.
Biden announced the release of strategic oil reserves as OPEC+ held a ministerial meeting to reach a consensus on the original plan to increase production slightly, that is, to increase output slightly to 432,000 barrels per day from May.
Steeves believes that the release of strategic oil reserves in the United States will help ease the pressure on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase production.
Separately, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources, that Russia is selling oil to countries including India at steep discounts as demand for Russian crude has slumped under Western sanctions.
Inventory report
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday that U.S. natural gas supplies rose by 26 billion cubic feet in the week to March 25, in line with the average forecast of analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 3.4 million barrels last week to 410 million barrels, the lowest level since September 2018, according to a report from the EIA on Wednesday. both increased.
The EIA said that the decline in inventories was mainly related to the increase in refinery processing rates. Crude oil processing volume has increased to 35,000 barrels per day in the most recent week, and overall utilization rates have increased by 1% to 92.1%. The Bay Area refinery processing rate rose to 95.6% , the highest since January 2020.
That pushed U.S. oil production up slightly to 11.7 million bpd, the first increase in two months.