03-03-2017, 11:15 PM
Oil slid for a third day as record-high U.S. crude stockpiles were seen jeopardizing OPEC’s efforts to drain a global surplus. Futures declined 1.2% in New York. While Saudi Arabia’s February crude shipments fell again, indicating OPEC’s top producer is cutting deeper than it pledged, U.S. stockpiles expanded by 1.5 MMbbl last week. Still, Citigroup said the increase in American inventories was “muted” compared with earlier gains and may peak as refineries restart after maintenance.
Oil prices decline as U.S. stockpiles set record
Iraq’s crude exports rose 1% by volume in February, contrasting with a decrease in monthly shipments by Saudi Arabia after both countries agreed to OPEC’s plan to cut oil production in an effort to prop up prices and trim a global oversupply. Exports increased to 3.85 MMbpd last month, about 39,000 bpd more than in January, according to port-agent reports and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Iraq's February oil exports rose despite OPEC output cuts
Saudi Arabia continued to lead OPEC’s efforts to cut production, helping the organization get closer to a goal set out in a historic accord last year. Riyadh lowered oil supply by 90,000 bbl to 9.78 MMbpd in February from a month earlier, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data. It was the second month in a row that the world’s biggest crude exporter pumped below its own target of 10.06 million barrels a day.
Saudi Arabia still bears brunt of oil cuts as OPEC output drops
Energy, the second worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year, could see further pain. Chevron, one of the top-weighted holdings in a popular energy ETF (the XLE) fell nearly 2 percent on Monday after posting disappointing quarterly earnings Friday, and Exxon Mobil and Schlumberger closed down about 1 percent each. Crude oil, which has generally moved in tandem with energy names for the last year, has fallen 2 percent in 2017.
The energy sector is nearing a 'critical' level. Here's why.