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By Michael Poulson, A/S Global Risk Management

Wednesday's weekly oil stocks report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) confirmed a huge draw in crude oil inventories as it reported a draw of 8.95 mbbl, which is just 200 kbbl lower than yesterday's API data. Even though these numbers are amongst the largest since September last year, the oil price dropped to a close at 50.27$, which is lower than it opened. Today's opening price was slightly higher though and at time of writing Brent oil price is around $50.5.

Yesterday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that OPEC and the non-OPEC countries agreeing to the production cut deal must stick to the cuts for "the long haul" if goal is to be achieved. On top of that statement, Bloomberg just released its latest summary of compliance rates showing that the only countries who met their share were: Kuwait, Mexico, Venezuela, Angola, Brunei and Equatorial Guinea - indicating that the largest producers Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq did not meet their agreed cut.

Turning to the US side of crude production, the latest weekly production figures showed that the US produced 9.502 mbpd, which is the highest output this year, and 76kbpd higher than the week before that.

Officially, the US driving season is still ongoing, and will be until next month. Historically, gasoline demands decrease following this high demand season.

Yesterday's U.S. central bank meeting minutes gave no new clues for the timing of an interest rate hike. Today, the European Central Bank will release its minutes of meeting. Markets will watch for comments on quantitative easing measures.

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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.