TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-World oil prices dropped on Thursday, March 24, 2016 New York time or Friday Morning, March 25, 2016, West Indonesia Time, due to concerns over a supply gut balanced with a drop in the number of US oil rigs.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery dipped 33 cents to US$39.46 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. European benchmark Brent North Sea for May delivery slipped three cents to US$40.44 in London.
The WTI price earlier dropped below US$39 per barrel, still pressured by Wednesday’s official report that showed US crude reserves rose significantly by 9.4 million barrels to 532.5 million barrels last week.
However, prices rebounded after the US rig count released by Baker Hughes on Thursday showed a decline of 15 oil rigs operating in the US for the week ending on March, 25, 2016.
The decline in rigs “gave some support to the market in spite of the terrible EIA inventory report,” Houston petroleum industry consultant Andy Lipow said.
“The market is trying to recover, but it’s going to remain weighed down with the high inventory levels and really without any concrete action out of OPEC and non-OPEC producers,” he added.
“That huge build in crude inventories really suggests that the overall supply situation remains imbalanced,” CMC Markets strategist Michael McCarthy told AFP. “These are big numbers and the market cannot just shrug that sort of thing off.”
ANTARA