Oil End of Day Summary: Crude Edges Up

WTI is headed towards US close trading higher, although has erased most of its earlier gains. A fall in US crude stocks and improving Chinese macro data remain supportive.

• WTI JUN 24 up 0.1% at 79.07$/bbl
• OPEC will stop publishing a calculation of demand for the bloc’s own crude in its monthly report, sources told Reuters, focusing instead on forecasts for oil from the wider OPEC+ group.
• The Biden administration has allowed a two-year extension for oil companies to return 15.3m bbl of crude that had been loaned from the SPR, Argus said.
• Iraq’s SOMO set the OSP for Basrah Medium to Asia for June at a $1/bbl premium to the Oman-Dubai average vs parity for May according to Bloomberg reports.
• China oil imports slipped in April due to seasonal maintenance in the country. They came in at 44.72mn metric tons (10.9mn bpd) in April
• Canadian oil-sands output will increase by about 0.5m b/d by 2030, higher than previously forecasted, according to Platts.
• Canada’s Suncor is leasing Aframax vessels in the Pacific to direct sell oil to customers from the new TMX pipeline the company said Wednesday.
• Global oil consumption averaged 160kb/d above estimates at 103.5mb/d in the first week of May according to JPMorgan’s high-frequency demand indicators.
• Goldman Sachs no longer expects a partial unwinding of the OPEC+ voluntary production cuts at the meeting on June 1 with “lower OPEC+ supply for longer.”
• Odds that oil prices will keep falling this quarter are rising as easing Middle East geopolitical risks reduce the chance of supply disruption, according to Macquarie Group.