Singapore, March 30 (BNA): Oil almost stabilized on Thursday, as a sudden drop in US crude inventories compensated for a lower-than-expected cut in Russian supplies, while investors closely watched developments in Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil exports.
Brent crude futures fell 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $78.23 a barrel at 06:30 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 12 cents, or 0.2%, to $73.09 a barrel.
Company data showed that producers have shut down or reduced production at several oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq after the northern export pipeline was halted, with more outages on the horizon.
On Thursday, Citi analysts said that the oil price premium between Kurdistan and Iraq may fade sooner than expected.
“Changes in Iraq’s internal politics may lead to a permanent political settlement very soon,” Citi said, estimating that pipeline flows could grow by about 200,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, an unexpected drop in US crude oil inventories capped the decline in prices, with imports falling to a two-year low, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Crude stocks fell by 7.5 million barrels to 473.7 million barrels in the week ending March 24, while analysts polled by Reuters expected an increase of 100,000 barrels.
However, gasoline stocks fell by 2.9 million barrels to 226.7 million barrels, compared to analysts’ expectations for a decline of 1.6 million barrels.
Analysts from the National Australia Bank said: “It is expected that the seasonal increase in demand by the end of the second quarter will lead to a rise in oil prices from current levels.”
Analysts added that while oil prices fell slightly on Thursday, they remained within the trading range seen since the beginning of 2023.
Meanwhile, lower-than-target cuts in Russian crude production eased supply concerns.
Sources familiar with the data told Reuters that Russian crude production fell by about 300,000 bpd in the first three weeks of March, short of the target cuts of 500,000 bpd.
HF