Brent crude oil price jumped to a fresh 4- year high of US$ 71.34/bbl before settling at US$ 71.04/bbl, up +3.48%. WTI crude oil price also gained +3.3%, ending the day at US$ 65.51/bbl. The rally was driven by the broadly based improvement in risk appetite as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech in Boao appeared to have eased US-China trade tensions. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry indicated that the Kingdom would keep exports below 7M bpd and restore its inventories to “normal” level.
Profit-taking in both oil benchmarks on Wednesday was facilitated by the inventory report released after US market close. The industry- sponsored API estimated that crude oil inventory surprisingly increased +1.56 mmb in the week ended April 6. For refined oil products, gasoline stockpile added +2.01 mmb while distillate fell -3.85 mmb for the week. EIA, the US governmental agency, today probably reports a -0.19 mmb draw in crude oil inventory. Gasoline and distillate stockpiles might have dropped -1.43 mmb and -0.03 mmb respectively.
