Monitoring Desk
RIYADH: The world’s largest oil consumer, the US, unexpectedly added to its crude and fuel inventories on Wednesday, and a worsening economy added to demand concerns.
On Wednesday morning, US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell by 0.91 percent to $74.44 per barrel, while Brent oil futures dropped by 0.82 percent to $79.44 per barrel.
During trading on Tuesday and Monday, both contracts increased, recovering from an acute selloff in the first week of 2023.
According to sources familiar with data from the energy ministry, oil production of Russia increased by 0.1 percent between January 1 and January 9 to reach nearly 10.9 million barrels per day, up from December 2022, according to the daily Vedomosti on Wednesday.
Russian oil production increased by 2 percent in 2022 to 10.7 million bpd or 535 million tonnes.
Crude oil prices
According to shipping information, Chevron Corp.’s first shipment of Venezuelan crude under a US license it received in November has left a ship-to-ship transfer hub near Aruba for its Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery.
Last year, the US Treasury Department permitted Chevron to increase oil production and expand operations in Venezuela as part of US initiatives to encourage political dialogues leading up to a presidential election in Venezuela.
Chevron received crude oil’s first shipment this month from PDVSA, the state-run oil company, loaded last week at Venezuela’s Jose terminal.
Refinitiv Eikon tanker monitoring data revealed that Chevron’s tanker Caribbean Voyager transported the 500,000 barrels of Hamaca heavy crude it had loaded in Venezuela to the Malta-flagged vessel Sealeo at a ship-to-ship hub close to Aruba’s Caribbean island.
