Oil prices fall on surprise increase in US inventory, demand worries By Reuters

By Jessica Jaganathan

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Wednesday on a surprise surge in inventories in the United States and as investors remained concerned about lower demand for fuel amid tighter shutdowns in Europe to counter the oil pandemic. coronavirus.

futures fell 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $ 50.65 a barrel at 0421 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 9 cents, or 0.2%, to 47 , $ 53 a barrel.

“Crude prices are slightly lower after the API (American Petroleum Institute) inventory report released a second consecutive accumulation,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

Crude inventories rose 2 million barrels in the week to December 11 to about 495 million barrels, according to industry group API.

Analysts had expected an extraction of 1.9 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll. Official government data was scheduled for Wednesday.

Launching vaccines this month to fight the coronavirus pandemic will not quickly reverse the destruction caused in global oil demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday.

The IEA revised down its estimates for oil demand this year by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) and for next year by 170,000 bpd, citing low use of jet fuel as fewer people travel by air.

“On the demand side, the biggest short-term downside risk to oil demand expectations is the United States, mainly due to the persistent weakness in the demand for gasoline from the United States, given the current trajectory of COVID- 19 in the country, “FGE analysts wrote in a note.

Still, progress on vaccine launch continued Tuesday after Modern (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc The COVID-19 vaccine appeared to be ready for US regulatory clearance this week.

The United States also expanded on Tuesday its launch of the recently approved COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc (NYSE 🙂 and German partner BioNTech SE (NASDAQ 🙂 to hundreds of additional distribution centers on Tuesday, inoculating thousands more healthcare workers in a mass immunization expected to reach the general public in the coming months. .

U.S. Congressional leaders also reported substantial progress Tuesday after two meetings of top Democrats and Republicans to end a months-long showdown over coronavirus relief and finalize a funding bill to prevent the government shutdown.