Oil Barely Changed Ahead of U.S. Inventory Data, Looming OPEC Meeting

© Reuters.

By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - Crude prices settled barely changed on Tuesday as market participants awaited weekly U.S. inventory data ahead of a looming global oil producers meeting.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled down 14 cents, or 0.2%, at $83.91 per barrel.

London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, finished the session up 1 cent at $84.72

The mundane price action came ahead of a weekly snapshot on U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate stockpiles due from the American Petroleum Institute. The API numbers, released each Tuesday after market settlement at 4:30 PM ET (20:30 GMT), are a precursor to official weekly inventory data due each Wednesday from the EIA, or U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

Analysts tracked by Investing.com have forecast that U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.23 million barrels for the week ended Oct 29, adding to the previous week’s gain of 4.27 million.

Gasoline inventories likely dropped by 1.33 million barrels, on top of the decline of almost 2.0 million in the previous week, forecasts showed.

Stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, are expected to have risen by 1.44 million barrels, after the previous week’s drop of 432,000.

Crude prices were also little changed on expectations that Thursday’s meeting of the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their 10 allies — collectively known as OPEC+ — will reject consuming countries’ demands for more oil to keep a lid on a market that has nearly doubled in value over the past year.

OPEC+ agreed earlier this year to raise production by 400,000 barrels per day. That was before a spike in demand had raised market requirements by at least a million barrels daily, say energy market experts.