Oil prices of benchmark grades remain in the plus on Wednesday afternoon after the release of the monthly report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) ahead of the publication of official data on oil inventories in the United States. Quotes for November Brent crude oil futures on the London-based ICE Futures exchange at 14:47 Q4 are trading at $92.54 per barrel, up $0.48 (0.52%) from the previous session’s close.
WTI crude oil futures for October on the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $0.48 (0.54%) to $89.32 per barrel by the indicated time.
The expected growth in global oil demand by 1.5 million bpd in the second half of 2023 compared to the first half of the year will outstrip supply by 1.24 million bpd, according to the IEA report.
The agency estimates that the world oil market balance turned into a deficit in the third quarter as more active supply cuts coincided with record high demand.
Thus, the IEA estimates a deficit of 1.5 million b/d in July and 1.7 million b/d in August, the highest since 2021, when a record OPEC+ supply cut was implemented to reduce the surplus accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first quarter of 2023, the IEA estimated an oil market surplus of 1.5 million bpd in the first quarter and 80,000 bpd in the second quarter.
The U.S. Department of Energy at 17:30 Wednesday will publish a weekly report on commercial stocks of oil, gasoline and distillates in the country. The data of the American Petroleum Institute (API) released the day before showed an increase in oil reserves by 1.174 million barrels at the end of the week ended September 8.
