Oil Little Changed After US Crude Inventory Build

(Reuters) – Oil prices were little changed on Thursday after rising to a near one-week high in the previous session, as an industry report showing a buildup in U.S. crude stockpiles pressured the market.

Brent futures were up 34 cents, or 0.5%, at $76.38 a barrel by 1407 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 26 cents, or 0.4%, to $72.51.

U.S. crude stocks rose by 3.34 million barrels last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday.

Oil prices edged lower on Thursday because of the stock build in the U.S., said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.

“The market continues to lack a clear direction, with supply disruptions in Kazakhstan and the OPEC+ production increase delay being offset by global demand worries,” Hansen said.

Official oil inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due on Thursday.

Separately, Russia said Caspian Pipeline Consortium oil flows, a major route for crude exports from Kazakhstan, were reduced by 30%-40% on Tuesday after a Ukraine drone attack on a pumping station.

A 30% cut would equate to the loss of 380,000 barrels per day of market supply, Reuters calculations show.

However, other factors and potential boosts to oil supply added to concerns about prices.

Potential restarts of oil flows from Iraq’s Kurdistan region were offsetting supply risks, analysts at ING said in a note.

Turkey, which hosts the port of Ceyhan that loads the Iraqi oil from the Kurdistan region, did not receive confirmation from Iraq on the resumption as of Thursday, the country’s energy minister told Reuters.

A resumption of the Iraqi oil flows would add 300,000 barrels of supply per day onto the market, ING analysts said.

Import tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration could dent oil prices by raising the cost of consumer goods, analysts said, weakening the global economy and reducing fuel demand. Concerns about European and Chinese demand were also helping keep prices in check.

“It is natural to be concerned about the global economic outlook as Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer smashing away at the existing global ‘free-trade structure’ with signals of 25% tariffs on car imports to the U.S.,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB.