The latest reading from the Department of Energy showed a surprising increase in US crude oil inventories in spite of December typically being a period of pronounced drawdowns as companies seek to take advantage of year-end tax benefits. According to the figures, US crude oil production unexpectedly rose last week to 9.202 million barrels while the Cushing storage facility saw an additional 900,000 barrels placed in storage, bringing the total to 63 million barrels out of 85 million barrels of total storage capacity. Hurting the outlook for crude oil prices further is the filling of global onshore facilities which currently numbers slightly less than 1.200 billion barrels in storage, not far from estimates of 1.400 billion in total global storage space. Crude prices fell on the announcement with WTI falling as low as $36.40 before rebounding modestly.
Oil Inventories Snap Back
Daily Analysis - 31/12/2015