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Crude oil futures traded lower on major exchanges on Thursday morning as the US petroleum status data showed a decrease in the petroleum products supplied in that country.
At 10.04 am on Thursday, August Brent oil futures were at $116.15, down by 1.55 per cent; and August crude oil futures on WTI were at $109.90, up by 0.11 per cent.
July crude oil futures were trading at ₹8691 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹8774, down by 0.95 per cent; and August futures were trading at ₹8501 as against the previous close of ₹8566, down by 0.76 per cent.
According to the petroleum status report of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the week ending June 24, which was released on Wednesday, total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20 million barrels a day, down by 0.1 per cent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, down by 2 per cent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 7.4 per cent from the same period last year.
Analysts felt that the high prices for the products could have led to the decline in the consumption of petroleum products in that country.
The US commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the strategic petroleum reserve) decreased by 2.8 million barrels from the previous week. At 415.6 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 13 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
The US crude oil imports averaged 6 million barrels a day last week, decreased by 0.2 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.3 million barrels a day, 5.1 per cent less than the same four-week period last year.
However, the supply side constraints due to various factors in some oil producing nations supported the further decline in the price of the commodity. Libya and Ecuador, two of the oil producers, have been facing protests in their countries. This has affected the production of crude oil.
Added to this, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and its allies, commonly known as OPEC+, began a two-day meeting on Wednesday. Market analysts predict that OPEC+ meeting is unlikely to take a decision on further increasing its production output.
July lead futures were trading at ₹176.20 on MCX in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹175.90, up by 0.17 per cent.
NCDEX
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), July castorseed futures were trading at ₹7450 in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹7418, up by 0.43 per cent.
July guarseed contracts were trading at ₹5148 on NCDEX in the initial hour of Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹5232, down by 1.61 per cent.
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