Oil prices edge up on reports of falling inventories, higher refinery runs

Analysts said that despite the deadly Paris attacks and French retaliation against Islamic State (IS) in Syria, prices would remain low for the rest of the year and into 2016 as oil markets stay oversupplied.

USA crude’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 45 cents at $40.30, after snapping below the key $40-a-barrel support for a second time since Wednesday. This year, United States crude has been below $50 a barrel for 84 days since July as well as another 44 days earlier in the year.

As a result, US crude futures have been struggling to break higher this week, although ANZ bank said rising crude demand from USA refineries was also preventing prices from falling much further.

The US energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday will release the inventories data of last week.

“With all of the fundamental signs still pointing to lower prices. the downtrend (is) still the dominant trend in the oil complex”, Dominick Chirichella from New York’s Energy Management Institute said in an analyst note.

A poll of eight analysts predicted a crude stock build of 1.9 million barrels on average in the week ended November 13.

WTI briefly dipped below US$40 a barrel after the oil data, a level it has not closed below since late August.

“So, oil prices continue to remain depressed by the still-high supply of the stuff and weaker demand prospects”.

WTI crude for December delivery rose $1 to settle at $41.74 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.

Oil prices fell on Thursday, with US crude dipping below $40 per barrel, retreating from early gains amid a persistent global glut of crude and refined fuel.

“Copper has hit the $US4,700 somewhat quicker than I thought it might… there is no reason why $US4,400 (an area of congestion from 2009) should be the next level to test”, said Malcolm Freeman, a director at Kingdom Futures. “It looks very bearish”, said Oystein Berentsen, managing director of crude oil at Singapore-based Strong Petrochemical. That’s the cheapest price since the final week of August when market mayhem rocked Wall Street amid fears about China’s economic slowdown.

“Oil is oversupplied, and gasoline has been relatively tight”, said Robert Campbell, head of oil-products research at Energy Aspects Ltd. “You make gasoline from crude, but they are two different markets”.

“Due to the intensifying demand for oil amidst times of uncertainty, oil prices historically increase due to global conflict”, added Jonathan Sudaria at London Capital Group.