Oil Rises Ahead of Thanksgiving Holiday
November 21 2017 - 5:37PM
Dow Jones News
By Neanda Salvaterra
Oil futures gained Tuesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and
a meeting next week of major oil producers to discuss a possible
extension of output cuts.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 41 cents, or 0.7%,
to $56.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the
global benchmark, advanced 35 cents, or 0.6%, to $62.57 a
barrel.
The market has benefited from expectations that the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will extend a deal to reduce
production and bring down global supply.
Prices also received a small boost from the partial shutdown of
TransCanada's Keystone pipeline after an oil spill last week,
analysts said.
"It is still in the range that we have seen last week. We have
the Thanksgiving holidays and some supply disruptions that offer a
bit of support," said Olivier Jakob, managing director at oil
consultancy Petromatrix.
OPEC will meet with other producers outside of the cartel,
including Russia, on Nov. 30 in Vienna.
The cartel and external producers first agreed a year ago to
reduce global crude output by nearly 2% from peak October 2016
levels in an effort to rein in a supply glut and boost prices.
The deal, which was extended in May, is set to expire in March
but investors are hoping for an extension of the deal through
2018.
While Saudi Arabia has expressed its dedication to extending the
agreement, investors are less sure of Russia's commitment. Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak is set to hold talks with Russian
oil companies Tuesday.
In anticipation of the meeting, investors have increased their
net long speculative positions in WTI by 32,000 to 372,000
contracts in the week to Nov. 14, close to the record level
achieved in February 2017.
Net long positions in Brent are already at a record level, said
analysts for Commerzbank.
Some analysts warn that the meeting could result in a surprising
outcome.
"We think there is some danger of a short-term market
disappointment; trader expectations are for a definitive and
conclusive deal, and the reality seems more likely to disappoint
than surprise to the upside," said analysts for Standard Chartered
Bank in a recent note.
Analysts are also anticipating that government data will show a
drop in crude stockpiles from last week. Market watchers surveyed
by The Wall Street Journal expect on average to see U.S. oil
inventories decline by 1.5 million barrels in the week ended Nov.
17. The closely watched report is due Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
EST.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said late
Tuesday that its data for the week showed a 6.4 million-barrel
decrease in crude supplies, an 869,000-barrel rise in gasoline
stocks and a 1.7 million-barrel decline in distillate inventories,
according to a market participant.
Gasoline futures rose 1.7% to $1.7731 a gallon and diesel
futures rose 0.2% to $1.9359 a gallon.
Stephanie Yang contributed to this article.
Write to Neanda Salvaterra at neanda.salvaterra@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 21, 2017 17:22 ET (22:22 GMT)
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