Oil prices bounce back

SINGAPORE. — Oil prices steadied yesterday, supported by healthy demand, after falling the previous day under pressure from record US crude production and rising inventories.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $64,36 per barrel at 0758 GMT, up 2 cents, or 0,03 percent, from their previous close. That slight rise came after a fall of more than 2 percent the previous day.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $61,16 a barrel, up 1 cent, or 0,02 percent. WTI also fell by more than 2 percent the previous session. The steadier prices yesterday followed a US crude inventory build that was not as big as expected during the current seasonal demand lull at the end of winter, when many oil refineries shut down for maintenance.

“Oil prices bounced back immediately after the release of the weekly oil inventories data from the Energy Information Administration . . . (where) the headline figure was better than expected,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com.

The EIA reported that US crude inventories C-STK-EIA rose by 2,4 million barrels in the week to March 2, to 425,91 million barrels, less than the 2,7 million barrel increase analysts had forecast. On the demand side, US bank Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients dated March 7 that the outlook remained for healthy growth, despite recent signs of a slight economic slowdown.

“A still robust growth outlook for 2018 and the recent pattern of 2Q demand acceleration all leave us reiterating our 1,85 million bpd 2018 global oil demand growth forecast,” the bank said.