OIL PRICE: ABOVE $65 YET

REUTERS - Oil prices fell on Wednesday, pulled down by weaker sharemarkets after a key advocate for free trade in the U.S. government resigned, triggering concerns that Washington would go ahead with import tariffs and risk a trade war.

Soaring U.S. crude oil production and rising inventories were also weighing on crude prices, traders said.

Gary Cohn, economic adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, seen as a bulwark against protectionist forces within the government, said on Tuesday he was resigning, triggering a more than 1 percent fall in S&P 500 futures in early Wednesday trade.

Crude oil futures followed suit.

Brent crude futures were at $65.37 per barrel at 0149 GMT, down 42 cents, or 0.6 percent from their previous close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $62.16 a barrel, down 44 cents, or 0.7 percent.

“The overhang from the Cohn resignation ... could see oil prices move lower during today’s session,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia/Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore.

A voice for Wall Street in the White House, Cohn’s move to resign came after he lost a fight over Trump’s plans for hefty steel and aluminum import tariffs.

Major powers, including the European Union and China, have warned that such tariffs could lead to retaliatory action and trigger a global trade war, which could grind to a halt economic growth and, by extension, oil consumption.

Traders said oil prices were also weighed by a reported rise in U.S. crude oil inventories.

Crude inventories rose by 5.661 million barrels in the week to 426.880 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.

Official data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is due to be published later on Wednesday.

Overall, oil supplies are ample despite efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to withhold output in order to prop up prices.

The EIA on Tuesday made its latest in a series of upward revisions for U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA, which it now expects to rise by more than 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 11.17 million bpd by the fourth quarter of 2018.

That would take the United States past Russia to become the world’s biggest oil producer. The U.S. already passed top exporter Saudi Arabia late last year.

For 2019, the EIA forecast a crude production increase of 570,000 bpd to 11.27 million bpd.

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Earlier: 

2018, March, 5, 11:35:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $64 YET REUTERS - International benchmark Brent crude was up 44 cents, or 0.68 percent, at $64.81 a barrel by 0135 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 41 cents, or 0.67 percent, to $61.66 per barrel. Русский | English

2018, March, 4, 11:30:00 ЦЕНА URALS: $ 65,99 МИНФИН РОССИИ - Средняя цена нефти марки Urals по итогам января – февраля 2018 года составила $ 65,99 за баррель.

2018, February, 27, 14:15:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $67 AGAIN REUTERS - U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April delivery CLc1 was down 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $63.78 a barrel by 0753 GMT. The contract on Monday rose to its highest since Feb. 6 at $64.24. Brent crude LCOc1 in London was down 12 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $67.38 a barrel. Русский | English

2018, February, 16, 23:45:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $64 AGAIN REUTERS - NYMEX crude for March delivery CLc1 was up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $61.51 a barrel by 0750 GMT, after earlier touching a one-week high of $61.82. For the week, the contract has risen about 4 percent after losing nearly 10 percent last week. London Brent crude LCOc1 was up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $64.58 after settling down 3 cents. Brent is up nearly 3 percent for the week after falling more than 8 percent last week.

2018, February, 14, 10:05:00 IEA: OIL DEMAND GROWTH 1.6 MBD IEA - Our demand growth estimate for 2017 remains strong at 1.6 mb/d, reinforced by November data for the US. For 2018, the more positive global economic picture published by the International Monetary Fund is a key factor in raising our growth outlook to 1.4 mb/d. It was thought that the significant increase in the dollar price of crude oil since the middle of 2017 would dampen growth, and this might be the case to some extent, but the impact of higher prices has been partly offset in some countries by currency appreciations.

2018, February, 9, 11:10:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $64 REUTERS - Brent futures were down 44 cents or 0.7 percent, at $64.37 a barrel by around 0700 GMT. On Thursday, Brent fell 1.1 percent to its lowest close since Dec. 20. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 62 cents, or 1 percent, at $60.53 a barrel, having settled down 1 percent in the previous session at its lowest close since Jan. 2. Русский | English

2018, February, 12, 07:40:00 OIL PRICE: ABOVE $63 REUTERS - Brent crude futures were at $63.42 per barrel at 0250 GMT, up 63 cents, or 1 percent, from the previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $59.83 a barrel. That was up 63 cents, or 1.1 percent, from their last settlement.