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Crude oil futures traded higher on Thursday morning following drone attacks by Ukraine on Russian refineries. Another factor that boosted the price was the significant drop in the crude oil inventories in the US.
At 9.52 am on Thursday, May Brent oil futures were at $84.19, up by 0.19 per cent, and April crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $79.84, up by 0.15 per cent.
March crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,613 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during initial trading against the previous close of ₹6,579, up by 0.52 per cent, and April futures were trading at ₹6,583 against the previous close of ₹6,557, up by 0.40 per cent.
Likely to impact production
On Wednesday, Ukraine attacked Russian refineries with drones. A Reuters report said Ukrainian drone attacks hit refineries in the Rostov and Ryazan regions on Wednesday. Before this, Lukoil’s refinery in Nizhny Novgorod was seriously damaged in the drone attack by Ukraine.
These attacks are likely to impact the fuel production in Russia. It comes at a time when Russia is facing shortage of gasoline in the market. Recently Russia had imposed a six-month ban on the export of products.
Official data released by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) showed a decline in crude oil inventories in that country. US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels for the week ending March 8. At 447 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 3 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year. Crude oil inventories had seen an increase of 1.36 million barrels a week prior to this.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 5.7 million barrels for the week ending March 8, and were about 3 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels a day, up by 1 per cent from the same period last year.
These data points indicated a tightening in the oil supplies in that country.
Turmeric, dhaniya decline
US crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.7 million barrels per day during the week ending March 8, which was 390,000 barrels a day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 86.8 per cent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.9 million barrels a day.
March natural gas futures were trading at ₹138.70 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹140.10, down by 1 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), April turmeric (farmer polished) contracts were trading at ₹18,952 during the initial hour of trading on Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹19,370, down by 2.16 per cent.
April dhaniya futures were trading at ₹8,014 on NCDEX during the initial hour of trading on Thursday morning against the previous close of ₹8,064, down by 0.62 per cent.
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