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By Michael Poulson, A/S Global Risk Management

Yesterday's weekly oil inventory report from the EIA showed a smaller than expected build in crude oil stocks, draws in gasoline and distillates stocks - see details below. Immediate market reaction was a slight blip upwards in prices, however, soon fell back on news that the U.S. crude oil inventories are now at historically high levels (520.2 mio. barrels). U.S. crude oil production was above 9 mio. barrels for the second week in a row.

Release: EIA oil data (Consensus)
Crude: 1.5M barrels (3M)
Distillates: -0.925M
barrels (-0.611M)
Gasoline: -0.546M
barrels (-1.789M))
Refinery utilization: 1.7%

Saudi Arabia likely continues to drive the OPEC oil production cut deal. Though the cuts have resulted in a drop in market share in Asia of around 5% for OPEC in general, Saudi Arabia has apparently managed to maintain its market share in the area. Official February data will be published by OPEC in the monthly report on 13 March, but preliminary surveys point to around 94% OPEC compliance, lower for non-OPEC. February crude oil output for Russia was unchanged from January, at 11.11. mio. bpd. The country agreed to cut production by 300,000 barrels per day in the production cut deal, hereof around 200,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2017.

Today sees Eurozone inflation data and unemployment rate ahead of tomorrow's manufacturing activity. U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI came out better than expected yesterday, tomorrow awaits the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI.

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A/S Global Risk Management is a provider of customised hedging solutions for the management of price risk on fuel expenses. The company has offices in Denmark and Singapore. For further details about its risk management products and services, please call +45 88 38 00 00 or email hedging@global-riskmanagement.com.