SINGAPORE: Oil prices largely reversed earlier falls on Thursday as a North Sea pipeline outage and record Chinese imports countered US crude production soaring past 10 million barrels per day.
Brent crude futures were at $65.51 per barrel at 0721 GMT, flat from their last close and up from a 2018-low of $65.12 a barrel reached early in the session.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $61.73 a barrel. That was down 3 cents from their last settlement, but a recovery from a session-low of $61.33 a barrel.
Support on Thursday came from the second outage in as many months on the 450,000 bpd Forties pipeline network, Britain’s biggest, which supplies much of the crude underpinning Brent futures, although operator Ineos said it would likely restart the pipeline by Thursday.
Record Chinese crude imports in January of 9.57 million bpd also supported prices, traders said.
Looming over markets, however, was US production soaring past 10 million bpd last week, to 10.25 million bpd.
“US crude production should keep hitting new highs throughout 2018,” US bank Citi said after the data’s release.
Until the early 2000s, the US was oil starved, importing a peak of 12 million bpd.
But in one of the steepest rises of any oil producer in modern history, US output has surged by more than 20 percent since mid-2016, undermining OPEC’s and Russia’s efforts to tighten the market and prop up prices by withholding production.
At 10.25 million bpd, US output is now higher than the previous 10.044 million bpd record from back in 1970.
It’s above that of top exporter Saudi Arabia’s and within reach of Russia’s.
“What surprised the most was the large spike in oil production to 10.25 million barrels per day which was significantly higher than 9.92 million from the previous week,” said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at futures brokerage Forex.com.
“Clearly, the data points to an imbalanced market and oil prices have responded by turning sharply lower,” he added.
Weighing further on prices, US commercial crude stocks rose by 1.9 million barrels in the week to Feb. 2, to 420.25 million barrels.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) this week also upped its 2018 average output forecast to 10.59 million bpd, up by a whopping 320,000 bpd from its last forecast just a week earlier.
Oil reverses falls on North Sea pipeline outage
Oil reverses falls on North Sea pipeline outage
Closing Bell: Saudi main index slips to close at 11,228
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index slipped on Sunday, lost 23.17 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 11,228.64.
The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR2.99 billion ($797 million), as 170 of the stocks advanced and 82 retreated.
On the other hand, the Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu gained 449.38 points, or 1.90 percent, to close at 24,093.12. This comes as 43 of the stocks advanced while 27 retreated.
The MSCI Tadawul Index lost 6.07 points, or 0.40 percent, to close at 1,511.36.
The best-performing stock of the day was Obeikan Glass Co., whose share price surged 7.54 percent to SR27.66.
Other top performers included Alamar Foods Co., whose share price rose 6.80 percent to SR47.10, as well as Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co., whose share price climbed 6.79 percent to SR5.66.
Saudi Investment Bank recorded the steepest drop, falling 3.21 percent to SR13.56.
Jahez International Co. for Information System Technology also saw its share price fall 3.15 percent to SR13.55.
Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. declined 2.78 percent to SR7.34.
On the announcements front, Tanmiah Food Co. reported its annual financial results for the period ending Dec. 31. According to a Tadawul statement, the company recorded a net loss of SR18.8 million, compared with a net profit of SR95.8 million a year earlier.
The net loss was mainly due to ongoing market challenges that resulted in continued pricing pressures in fresh poultry, inflationary cost pressures, higher financing expenses, and depreciation and ramp-up costs from new facilities, partially offset by increased production volumes and cost-optimization initiatives.
Tanmiah Food Co. ended the session at SR58.20, up 3.72 percent.
United International Holding Co., also known as Tas’heel, announced its annual financial results for the period ending Dec. 31. A bourse filing showed the company recorded a net profit of SR273.64 million in 2025, up 23.05 percent from 2024, primarily driven by a 23.4 percent rise in revenues. The revenue growth helped lift gross profit by 23.7 percent.
Tas’heel ended the session at SR146.80, down 0.28 percent.
