Crude oil futures traded marginally higher on Thursday morning after witnessing more than 2 per cent decline on Wednesday.

At 9.56 am on Thursday, June Brent oil futures were at $66.17, up by 0.08 per cent, and June crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $62.31, up by 0.06 per cent. May crude oil futures were trading at ₹5353 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹5309, up by 0.83 per cent, and June futures were trading at ₹5316 against the previous close of ₹5,279, up by 0.70 per cent.

Crude oil price got some support following a report that the US and China could move closer to talks on the trade tariffs. A Wall Street Journal report said that White House would be willing to lower its tariffs on China to start tariff negotiations.

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said told Fox News that there would be no unilateral reduction in tariffs on goods from China.

In their Commodities Feed for Thursday, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy of ING Think, and Ewa Manthey, Commodities Strategist, said while a risk-on move lifted most risk assets on Wednesday, oil was left behind thanks to OPEC+ discord.

Brent settles down

ICE Brent settled almost 2 per cent lower on Wednesday amid concerns about aggressive supply hikes from OPEC+. This comes after Kazakhstan said that it’s unable to lower oil output and plans to prioritise domestic interests over OPEC+ obligations.

Kazakhstan has been pumping well above its production target following an expansion project at the Tengiz field. This led to reports that other OPEC+ members are pushing for aggressive supply hikes in June. Disagreement between OPEC+ members is a clear downside risk, as it could lead to a price war, they said.

Meanwhile, the weekly petroleum status report by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) showed a slight increase in crude oil inventories in the US.

US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels for the week ending April 18. At 443.1 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 5 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels from last week and were about 3 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.4 million barrels last week and were about 13 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels a day, up by 0.4 per cent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels a day, down by 0.4 per cent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 12.8 per cent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 13.8 per cent compared with the same four-week period last year.

May natural gas futures were trading at ₹269.20 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹272.40, down by 1.17 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), May turmeric (farmer polished) contracts were trading at ₹14900 in the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹14680, up by 1.50 per cent.

May cottonseed oilcake futures were trading at ₹3000 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹2900, up by 0.33 per cent.

Published on April 24, 2025