Oil Again Falls Under Pressure of US Inventories Rise, Profit Taking

By Adedapo Adesanya

Oil prices closed in the bearish territory on Friday, falling for another session pressured by an unexpected rise in US crude and fuel inventories after investors took profits after the benchmarks touched seven-year highs earlier in the week.

Brent crude dropped 49 cents or 0.55 per cent to trade at $87.89 per barrel while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 41 cents or 0.48 per cent to settle at $85.14 per barrel.

However, both crude benchmarks rose for a fifth week in a row, gaining around 2 per cent this week, showing that prices were up more than 10 per cent so far this year on concerns over tightening supplies.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the first US crude build since November in the week just as fuel inventories hit an 11-month high in the world’s largest oil consumer.

Crude inventories rose by 515,000 barrels in the week to January 14 to 413.8 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations of a 938,000-barrel drop.

Earlier in the week, both Brent and WTI rose to their highest levels since October 2014.

But the latest pullback happened due to a combination of pre-weekend profit-taking and the absence of fresh bullish catalysts.

Analysts also said they expect the current pressure on prices to be limited owing to supply concerns and rising demand.

Tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are also heightening fears of supply disruption as top US and Russian diplomats made no major breakthrough at talks on Ukraine on Friday.

There was, however, an agreement to keep talking to try to resolve a crisis that has stoked fears of a military conflict.

Amid these, there are forecasts that prices will perform their best in recent times this year due to low spare OPEC+ capacity, low inventories and geopolitical tensions rising.

Analysts at Bank of America said they expect to see Brent at around $120 a barrel in mid-2022.

UBS expects crude oil demand to reach record highs this year and for Brent to trade in a range of $80-$90 a barrel for now.

Morgan Stanley has raised its Brent price forecast to $100 a barrel in the third quarter, up from its previous projection of $90.

Meanwhile, in the United States, energy firms cut oil rigs this week for the first time in 13 weeks.