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Crude oil reverses earlier gains to close flat post EIA inventory data

Crude oil rose during the early US hours on the back of stronger equities and a weaker USD but reversed all of the gains after US EIA released its weekly oil inventory figures. Data showed that crude stocks rose for a seventh straight week by 2.30m barrels against expectations of a rise of 3.30m barrels bringing the total stockpile number to a record high of 534.80m barrels.

Market chatter ahead of the meeting of oil producers in Doha was still focused on the decision by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which are two of OPEC's biggest exporters, to restart production at the 300k barrels per day Khafji facility. "Disastrous sign" and "lip service paid to freezing oil production is nothing but hot air" as quoted from comments by Commerzbank.

OPEC supply in March rose from 32.37m bpd to 32.47m bpd as higher supply from Iran post lifting of sanctions and high exports from Iraq more than offset maintenance and turnarounds in smaller producers. Iran is expected to add half a million bpd within a year according to Paris based IEA.