- WTI is up 73c to $64.74/Bbl, and Brent is up 65c to $68.17/Bbl
- Overnight trading for WTI was choppy with over a dollar in range in pre-market action
- The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a 12.8 MMBbl rise in crude inventories for the week ended March 5
- More closely followed U.S. government data is due out later this morning
- The continuation of OPEC+ cuts have hit the oil waterborne shipping business in the pocketbook
- As producers enjoy higher oil prices due to the global restriction of supply some shippers are experiencing losses for supertanker rates on a benchmark Middle East-to-China route as rates deepened to -$6,779 a day on Tuesday (Bloomberg)
- That is the biggest loss in at least the past three years and effectively means vessel owners would be subsidizing the transport of oil on that route
- For reference, the same route in September made a positive $25k/day and about $15k/day in January
- The EIA increased its U.S. crude production estimates for 2021 and 2022 because of expected higher crude prices
- Domestic oil production will average 11.15 MMBbl/d this year, up by more than 1% from the previous forecast of 11.02 MMBbl/d, according to the agency's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO)
- Crude production in 2022 will average about 12.02 MMBbl/d, up about 4% from the prior month's STEO
- The agency estimates that WTI will average $57.24/Bbl this year and $54.75 in 2022, up from 14% and 6% respectively