White House Urges OPEC+ to Up Crude Production
August 12, 2021
Energy prices settled higher in yesterday’s trading. Prices originally fell in the morning after the White House stated that the Biden administration had urged OPEC+ oil producers to increase production. Prices rebounded later in the day after the White House said it would not call on US producers to increase oil output and that is efforts for OPEC+ to raise output were a longer-range plan.
The NFIB small business optimism index fell unexpectedly for July from June. Shortages of quality labor, supply chain bottlenecks, and rising inflation were the main causes of lower optimism.
The DOE inventory report had crude supplies down 448,000 barrels. Gasoline supplies were down 1.401 million barrels and distillates were down 1.767 million barrels. Crude oil stocks at Cushing, Ok were also down 325,000 barrels making this report supportive to prices overall.
Propane stocks were down 641,000 barrels putting total stocks at 65.329 million barrels. Midwest stocks were up 574,000 barrels putting total stocks at 19.913 million barrels. The Gulf Coast stocks were down 951,000 barrels putting total stocks at 33.012 million barrels. Prices were stronger on this report in yesterday’s market activities.
The Federal Highway Administration said US motorists drove 14.5% more miles in June over COVID-19 pandemic levels in 2020 as more Americans return to offices and resume trips.