A very tight Asia session for the major crude...>

OIL: A very tight Asia session for the major crude benchmarks, with WTI & Brent

trading a few cents lower than their respective settlement levels at writing.

- Cooling risk appetite & a much larger than exp. headline crude build in the

latest round of weekly DoE inventory data, which was also much larger than the

build indicated by the API estimate, pushed crude away from highs on Wednesday.

The DoE report also revealed a larger than exp. drawdown for gasoline stocks, a

smaller than exp. drawdown for distillate stocks & a build at Cushing. Refinery

run rates fell.

- Elsewhere, further pressure came from a BBG story which noted that "the

biggest producers in OPEC+ aren't pushing for deeper oil-supply cuts when the

group meets next month, according to delegates across the coalition," with a

focus on increased compliance re: the current deal, which followed a a WSJ piece

released earlier on Wednesday, although the WSJ report focused on Saudi wishes.

- There was also a disappointing oil rights auction in Brazil on Wednesday.

- U.S. regulators ordered that the Keystone pipeline will remain shut until its

owner takes corrective action re: determining the cause of the recent leak.