Crude Flat In Asia

WTI & Brent crude futures sit at virtually unchanged levels after essentially finishing flat on Wednesday.

• The European COVID situation continues to cloud the demand side, while the question of what will OPEC+ do to counter the recently outlined coordinated stockpile release from some of the major oil consuming nations? lingers on the supply side.
• On the latter, some source reports have suggested that the OPEC+ group will choose not to implement the previously outlined 400K bpd uptick in production when it convenes next week. However, it would seem not all of the participating nations are onboard with such a move, with separate source reports pointing to no plan to deviate from the previously prescribed plan re: upping production. We also saw OPEC's advisory body (the Economic Commission Board) suggest that the aforementioned and well-documented stockpile release from the major consuming nations could result in a notable swelling of surplus in global oil markets.
• Elsewhere, the latest weekly DoE inventory dataset, released Wednesday, revealed a "surprise" headline crude build, akin to what was seen in the API estimate the evening before.