How Will the Doha Meeting Affect the Crude Oil Market?
API crude oil inventories
The API (American Petroleum Institute) is scheduled to release its weekly crude oil inventory report on April 12, 2016. The government agency reported that US crude oil inventory fell by 4.3 MMbbls (million barrels) for the week ending April 1, 2016, compared to the previous week. On the other hand, API estimated that Cushing crude oil stocks rose by 0.32 MMbbls for the same period. To learn more, read the next part of the series.
EIA’s crude oil inventories
Wednesday’s EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) petroleum status report will follow Tuesday’s API crude oil inventory report. The government agency reported that the US crude oil inventory fell by 4.9 MMbbls (million barrels) to 529.9 MMbbls for the week ending April 1, 2016.
The rise and fall in US crude oil stocks impact storage costs. To learn more, read Crude Oil Storage Costs Rose 9 Times, US Crude Tests New Limits and Record US Crude Oil Inventory Led to a New Storage Space.
Impact of near-record US crude oil inventory
US crude oil inventory hit an all-time high of 534.8 MMbbls for the week ending March 25, 2016. These inventories are also 9.8% higher than in the same period in 2015. The preliminary estimates from Reuters suggest that the US crude oil inventory could have risen for the week ending April 8, 2016, compared with the previous week. The estimates for rising crude oil inventory could limit the upside for crude oil prices.
The contango market and the near-record US crude oil inventory support crude oil tanker companies like Nordic American Tankers (NAT), Teekay Tankers (TNK), DHT Holdings (DHT), Frontline (FRO), and Tsakos Energy Navigation (TNP).
The ups and downs in crude oil prices impact ETFs like the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy (RYE), the PowerShares DWA Energy Momentum (PXI), the DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN (DTO), the First Trust Energy AlphaDEX Fund (FXN), the VelocityShares 3x Long Crude Oil ETN (UWTI), and the Direxion Daily Energy Bear 3x ETF (ERY).
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