Crude Futures Build On Gains

Crude futures are higher on Wednesday as they extend Tuesday's gains, benchmarks have hit the highest in over a year on tightening global supplies and indications of strength in physical markets. WTI is up $0.27 at $55.02, brent is up $0.31 at $57.77.

• Data after market yesterday helped support crude; API inventory figures showed a sizable 4.26m bbl draw in headline inventories, while there was also a marginal improvement in fundamentals for downstream markets, reporting 240k bbl and 1.62m bbl draws in US gasoline and distillate inventories, respectively. Data from China showed stockpiles fell to a one year low, declining for the seventh straight week. The market will now look ahead to more comprehensive US DOE data at 1530GMT today.
• OPEC headlines from yesterday continue to offer support. The group said they expect that inventories will fall back below their 5-year averages in June.
• Also supporting prices is robust corporate buying with Shell active in the market again after it engaged in the heaviest buying by a single company since at least 2008.
• The market now focuses on the OPEC+ JMMC meeting scheduled for today, which will provide a preview for the OPEC+ meeting on March 4 when the latest production figures will be announced.