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- In spite of a bearish API, the Department of Energy inventory report showed a draw of 4.8mb between crude and oil products, with commercial crude inventories drawing 4.6mb versus an expectation of 1.9mb (NYSEARCA:USO).
- Chevron (NYSE:CVX) announced that production at Tengiz was back to normal, following a transport disruption related to the Kazakhstan protests.
- After news last week that both pipeline maintenance and insurgent-related outages had passed, Libya this week confirmed that production was ramping, and had reached 963kb/d as of Thursday (OTCQX:REPYY) (NYSE:TTE) (OTCPK:OMVKY).
- Over the weekend, Iran's NOC chief indicated in the press that the Country was having no issues ramping crude oil exports, despite US sanctions; this could be viewed as a negotiating tactic.
- The Department of Energy weighed in this week, releasing their supply / demand forecasts showing oil surpluses as far as the eye can see; though December's deficit attracted as much attention as the forecast.
- This morning Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) provided guidance for the year ahead, reducing production expectations and tightening up the go-forward s&d balance by ~100kb/d.
- It was reported this morning that China will release crude from its strategic reserve ahead of the Lunar New Year, though the quantity released will depend on oil prices at the time.
- Overnight China provided crude oil import statistics for December, showing imports increasing by over 1mb/d from November; perhaps raising eyebrows in Washington, as consuming countries were supposed to release reserves in December under a White House plan, not increase them.
- Finally, rig count accelerated higher on the week, following a few weeks of slow additions over the holidays (NASDAQ:BKR) (NYSE:HAL).