Oil Futures Edge Higher following Thursday's Slide

    

   WASHINGTON, D.C. (DTN) -- Oil futures nearest delivery on the New York 
Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange settled 
higher on Friday, recouping some of the hefty losses from Thursday's plunge 
that sent front-month West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude futures to two 
months lows.

   WTI rebounded 1.4% on Friday following the worst one-day drop of 2019 as 
fears over the health of global economy tied to U.S.--China trade tensions sent 
equities and oil markets sharply lower Thursday. Markets were unnerved 
yesterday by comments from the Chinese commerce ministry, which said the 
country would not resume trade talks with the United States until the latter 
adjusts its wrong actions. The Dow Jones Industrial plunged more than 400 
points on the news but today posted modest gains ahead of long Memorial Day 
weekend. 

   Oil futures were also battered mid-week after the Energy Information 
Administration released a bearish inventory report showing U. S. crude stocks 
rose 4.7 million bbl in the week ended May 17 to a 20-months high. Supply data 
also showed gasoline inventories increased an unexpected 3.7 million bbl last 
week, suggesting lagging demand just ahead of the U.S. driving summer season. 

   EIA also reported U.S. crude production increased 100,000 bpd to 12.2 
million bpd, holding below a record 12.3 million bpd registered in late April, 
and following a re-benchmarking of U.S. crude output earlier this month that 
lowered the production rate by 200,000 bpd.

   Baker Hughes data for the week ended today showed the number of active oil 
rigs in the U.S declined for a third consecutive week, falling below 800 count 
for the first time since the final week of March 2018. This week the rig count 
fell 5 to 797, while a total of 8 rigs were taken out of service in May. 

   NYMEX July WTI futures settled up $0.72 at $58.63 bbl after trading at 
10-week low in the previous session. 

   ICE July Brent futures settled up $0.93 at $68.69 bbl, with Brent premium to 
WTI widening to a four-month high at $10.06 bbl. 

   NYMEX June RBOB futures recovered 2.12cts to settle at $1.9345 a gallon, 
after falling to a better than seven-week low on Thursday. NYMEX June ULSD 
futures settled 0.89cts higher at $1.9713 a gallon. 

   Liubov Georges, 1.646.359.4088, liubov.georges@dtn.com, www.dtn.com. (c) 
2019 DTN. All rights reserved.