- Crude Oil is pinned into the high end to wrap up the trading week.
- WTI holding above $80.00 per barrel.
- Barrel traders pinning hopes on supply constraints looking forward.
On Friday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US Crude Oil remained above the $80.00 per barrel mark, reflecting ongoing expectations in energy markets for a widening gap between global Crude Oil output and projected demand growth through 2024 and into 2025.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently revised its forecasts, anticipating a global Crude Oil deficit assuming that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) maintains its current voluntary production caps. With OPEC set to convene on June 1 to discuss output levels for the latter half of 2024, investors widely anticipate the cartel to continue restricting quotas, particularly as Saudi Arabia aims to support barrel prices.
This week, declines in US Crude Oil supplies fueled a bullish sentiment in energy markets, following reports from both the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of deeper drawdowns in Crude Oil stocks. This was driven by increased demand at US refineries.
US Crude Oil supplies drawdown sparks risk bid
On Tuesday, the API released data indicating a substantial decrease in Weekly Crude Oil Stocks for the week ending March 8, with a decline of 5.5 million barrels. This figure sharply contrasted with the anticipated increase of 400,000 barrels and effectively reversed the previous week’s buildup of 4,423,000 barrels. Similarly, the EIA’s report for the same period showed a decline of 1.536 million barrels in Crude Oil Stocks Change, failing to meet the expected buildup of 1.338 million barrels and offsetting the previous week’s increase of 1.367 million barrels.
WTI technical outlook
WTI is currently trading towards the upper boundary of a supply zone close to the $80.00 mark, following its recent surge above the 200-hour Simple Moving Average (SMA) just above $78.00 earlier this week. Moreover, the 200-hour SMA has turned bullish, climbing above $78.50.
In the immediate term, there exists a demand zone in close proximity to cushion any potential downward movements near the $77.00 level. Despite reaching a multi-month high earlier this week, Crude Oil is maintaining stability.
WTI hourly chart
WTI US OIL
