On Thursday, crude drifted away from three-year maximums on signs that a 13-percent soar since early December might have run its course. However, a sudden sag in American output as well as lower crude inventories underpinned crude prices.
American West Texas Intermediate crude futures hit $63.50 a barrel, which is 7 cents below their previous close, although still close to a December-2014 maximum of $63.67 a barrel hit yesterday.
As for Brent crude futures, they reached $69.10 a barrel, which is 10 cents below their previous settlement, although still close to yesterday’s high of $69.37 a barrel – the highest reading since an intra-day jump in May 2015.
American output dived 290,000 barrels a day to approximately 9.5 million bpd, as the EIA informed, thus confounding hopes for American output breaking through 10 million bpd.
Notwithstanding it, more bearish signals are emerging. American and Asian fuel inventories are still ample, and in some cases are even going up.
