Oil has trickled lower in.......................>

OIL: Oil has trickled lower in post-settlement/Asia trade, pressured by reports

pointing to a larger than exp. build in the latest weekly API headline crude

inventory estimate. Reports also pointed to a build at the Cushing hub & larger

than expected drawdowns in both gasoline & distillate stocks.

- WTI & Brent sit ~$0.40 below their settlement levels at writing. The risk +ve

backdrop had supported crude on Tuesday, allowing the major benchmarks to lodge

gains come settlement, before the aforementioned sell off occured.

- OPEC's World Oil Outlook saw the group point to a deeper contraction in its

own crude supply into the middle of the next decade. It also lowered its global

oil demand forecast over a similar horizon. OPEC Sec Gen Barkindo noted that

participating nations are ramping up their compliance with the OPEC+ production

pact & that the discussion of what to do in 2020 is an "ongoing process."

- Elsewhere, U.S./Iran tensions continue to simmer.

- Further afield, Tuesday also saw Platt's sources report that "Venezuelan state

oil company PDVSA and Chevron Corp plan to turn their joint venture Petropiar

plant back into a crude upgrader."