ByIrina Slav– Mar 13, 2025, 2:45 AM CDT
Crude oil prices dipped today, despite expectations for strong demand following the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest inventory report that showed a more sizable draw than expected.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $70.87 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $67.55 per barrel, both down from Wednesday.
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The Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil stock build of 1.4 million barrels for the week to March 7, but that build was accompanied by a much more sizable decline in gasoline inventories, at 5.7 million barrels. Middle distillates also declined, by 1.6 million barrels, in the reporting period.
“Declining U.S. gasoline inventories raised expectations for a seasonal demand increase in spring, but concerns about the global economic impact of tariff wars weighed on the market,” Nissan Securities Investment chief strategist Hiroyuki Kikukawa told Reuters.
Meanwhile, OPEC reiterated its bullish stance on oil demand for this year in its latest monthly report. The group expects global oil demand to grow by 1.45 million barrels daily this year, moderating slightly to 1.43 million barrels daily in 2026.
The oil cartel also reported higher production, which also affected prices on both Wednesday and early on Thursday. The February average for the group was 26.86 million barrels daily, up by 154,000 barrels daily from January. The biggest contributors to this higher output were Nigeria and Iran. OPEC+ output also rose strongly in February, driven by Kazakhstan, where production increased by an impressive 198,000 barrels daily. This will make the Central Asian producer’s task harder in making up for overproduction under the OPEC+ quota regime.
OPEC+ is expected to add some 138,000 barrels daily to total production beginning in April, as it had planned when it devised its production control policy. However, most observers appear to assume that the ramp-up is set in stone while in fact OPEC+ has repeatedly indicated it will be flexible in its decisions, basing them on market conditions, meaning prices.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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