By Seher Dareen
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices inched up on Wednesday as an industry report showed U.S. crude inventories declined last week, adding to a sense in the market of tightening supplies.
Brent futures rose 26 cents to $67.89 a barrel by 0810 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures also gained 26 cents at $63.67.
“The market is expecting supply excess and stock builds globally in the last quarter of the year, but the focus recently has shifted back to Eastern Europe and the possible introduction of fresh sanctions on Russia,” said PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga.
The stalled resumption of Kurdish oil exports along with Chevron’s curbed oil exports from Venezuela due to U.S. permit issues added to short-term bullishness in the market, he added.
Both benchmarks climbed by more than $1 a barrel on Tuesday as a deal to resume exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan stalled, halting pipeline shipments of what would have been 230,000 barrels per day of oil from the region to Turkey, as two key producers asked for debt repayment guarantees. Pipeline flows have been stopped since March 2023.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believed Ukraine could retake all the territory captured by Russia. That would mark a sudden and striking rhetorical shift in Ukraine’s favour, after the administration had urged countries in the EU to phase out Russian oil and gas quicker earlier in the month.
On the supply side, American Petroleum Institute figures showed U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell, while distillate stocks rose last week, according to market sources citing the API data.
Official U.S. government energy data is due on Wednesday, which is expected to show a gain in both crude oil and gasoline stockpiles and a likely decline in distillates.
A Reuters poll of eight analysts ahead of the inventory data, however, estimates that crude oil and gasoline stockpiles rose in the week to September 19 while distillate inventories likely fell. [EIA/S]
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in London, Jeslyn Lerh in Singapore; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
