Oil Steady Ahead of U.S. Stocks Data, Trump Venezuela Deal


   
Barani Krishnan
DTN Refined Fuels Market Reporter

   SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) -- Oil futures steadied Wednesday (1/7) ahead of the 
release of U.S. weekly inventory data from the Energy Information 
Administration (EIA).

   Market participants were also closely monitoring remarks from U.S. President 
Donald Trump late on Tuesday (1/6) that Venezuela would relinquish as many as 
50 million barrels of oil to the U.S. in an arrangement that would benefit both 
countries. The Trump administration announced at the weekend that the U.S. 
would be running Venezuela after Maduro's capture and would administer the OPEC 
member's oil.

   The EIA is to report at 10:30 a.m. ET inventory data for the week ended 
January 2. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late on Tuesday that 
U.S. commercial crude oil stocks fell by 2.8 million bbl last week, after prior 
back-to-back increases of 1.7 million and 2.4 million bbl.

   Gasoline inventories surged by 4.4 million bbl, adding to the 6.2 million 
bbl build from the prior week while distillate fuel oil stocks climbed by 4.9 
million bbl, extending the previous 1 million bbl increase, API reported.

   Scrutiny on U.S. oil output and stockpiles have increased with the country's 
record production of 13.9 million bpd since the middle of last year and the 
International Energy Agency's warning that the global crude glut could grow to 
3.8 million bpd in 2026.

   Trump's announcement that the U.S. would receive Venezuelan oil cargoes as 
well added to traders' concerns. The 50 million bbl of Venezuelan oil cited by 
Trump would represent about 30 to 50 days of production, given that country's 
current output of around 1 million bpd output estimated by OPEC.

   Trump said in a Truth Social media post on Tuesday that Venezuelan oil on 
board of storage ships would be brought directly to unloading docks in the U.S. 
Venezuela has a backlog of unshipped volumes piling up in storage tanks and 
aboard contracted vessels since a U.S. blockade that began in early December.

   The NYMEX WTI contract for February delivery was down $0.18, or 0.4%, at 
$56.95 bbl after a 2% drop on Monday (1/6).

   ICE Brent for March delivery was up $0.06, or 0.1%, to $60.76 bbl, after a 
1.7% slide in the previous session.

   RBOB futures for February rose $0.0110 to $1.7371 gallon while the 
front-month ULSD for February climbed $0.0039 to $2.0869.

   The U.S. Dollar Index retreated by 0.017 points to 98.3 against a basket of 
foreign currencies.




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