MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures rose during the mid-morning trade in Asia June 30, as data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a large draw in US crude inventories, and as the market eagerly awaited the July 1 OPEC+ meeting, reported S&P Global.
At 11:13 am Singapore time (0311 GMT), the ICE August Brent futures contract was up 43 cents/b (0.58%) from the previous close at USD75.19/b while the NYMEX August light sweet crude contract was up 49 cents/b (0.67%) at USD72.98/b.
The data released by the American Petroleum Institute led to some bullishness in the market, as it showed a draw of 8.15 million barrels in the US crude inventories for the week ended June 25.
The data was less positive with regards to downstream products inventories, showing gasoline and distillate inventories rising by 2.42 million barrels and 428,000 barrels, respectively.
The market remains optimistic about US products demand, and especially gasoline demand, with Apple Mobility data showing the US driving activity staying near record levels at 162% of the January 2020 baseline in the week ended June 25.
The market will now be awaiting more comprehensive data from the Energy Information Administration, due to be released later June 30, for more pricing cues.
Meanwhile, the market has its eyes set on the July 1 OPEC+ meeting, after the July 29 Joint Technical Committee provided little definite guidance into the producer group's production plans for August.
Despite calls for higher production, analysts generally expect the coalition to raise production moderately by 500,000 b/d in August, especially as the resurgence in COVID-19 infections due to the delta variant of the coronavirus threatens demand, and as the threat of additional barrels from Iran following a possible Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal hangs over the market.
"Russia apparently is leading a group of countries that want to (increase) output. Saudi Arabia is taking a more cautious approach, with Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, cautioning (that) it's not clear whether oil prices were rising due to real supply and demand or because of expectations and trajectories that are excessively optimistic," ANZ analysts said in a June 30 note.
We remind that as MRC informed earlier, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world"s third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC