Oil holds gains on China rebound

SINGAPORE: Oil prices inched up in early Asian trade on Thursday, extending gains from the previous two sessions on signs of a strong economic rebound in China, the world’s top oil importer, which offset worries about a rise in U.S. crude inventories.

Brent crude futures rose 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $84.43 a barrel at 0231 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $77.76 a barrel.

Both contracts rose about 1% in the previous session after data showed manufacturing activity in China in February grew at the fastest pace in more than a decade, adding to evidence of an economic rebound after the removal of strict COVID-19 curbs.

However a tenth consecutive week of crude stock builds in the United States capped the market’s gains.

U.S. crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) rose by 1.2 million barrels in the week ending Feb. 24 to 480.2 million barrels, their highest level since May 2021, the Energy Information Administration reported.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 500,000-barrel rise.

Record exports of U.S. crude oil, however, kept the build smaller than in recent weeks, with shipments rising to 5.6 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, according to the EIA.

“U.S. crude inventories slowed their increases but sit at above the five-year range, with the slowdown of builds due to surging gross exports to new records,” Citi analysts said in a client note.

Meanwhile, crude oil processed by Indian refiners reached record levels in January, provisional government data on Wednesday showed, as the country boosted imports of Russian barrels that Western countries shunned.

Refinery throughput in the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer reached 5.39 million barrels per day for January, the highest since Reuters records going back to 2009.