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By Michael Poulson, A/S Global Risk Management

The weekly oil inventory report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed huge deviation from Tuesday's API oil stocks data with a 1.5 million-barrel build in crude oil stocks (API: 1.8 mio. barrel drop). The news caused a downward blip to current levels of just above $54 (Brent). See details of the inventories below.

Release: EIA oil data (Consensus)
Crude: 1.566M barrels (-0.435M)
Distillates: -0.536M barrels (-1.016M)
Gasoline: -0.618M barrels (-1.422M)
Refinery utilization: 1.5%

Nigerian oil production in March fell to 1.6 mio. barrels per day (bpd) from February's 2 mio. bpd. According to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources the reduction is due to routine repairs and maintenance. In addition, there are talks of an oil tanker drivers' strike in the beginning of April.

On the economic data front, yesterday's private payroll data (ADP) came out stronger than expected yesterday; now markets will follow tomorrow's nonfarm payroll data closely for confirmation/deviation of the data. Chinese Caixin Services PMI for March came out lower than expected (52.2 versus 52.6 previous). Later this morning, ECB's President Draghi and a row of other ECB members will speak.

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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.