Basra crudes inch up following global oil surge

Shafaq News / The prices of Basra crude oil, both Heavy and Intermediate, recorded a slight increase on Thursday, reflecting the global rise in oil prices. The price of Basra Heavy crude rose by three cents to reach $77.99, while Basra Intermediate crude rose by 13 cents to reach $81.39. As reported by Reuters, oil prices edged up on Thursday, supported by strong demand in the US after gasoline stocks hit a three month low and crude stockpiles dropped unexpectedly, with supply concerns remaining after Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. Brent futures for May climbed 19 cents, or 0.23%, to $84.22 a barrel, while April US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 15 cents, or 0.19%, at $79.87 per barrel. Both contracts had risen about 3% to a four-month high on Wednesday on the elevated US demand outlook and heightened geopolitical risk. US gasoline inventories slid for a sixth straight week, falling by 5.7 million barrels to 234.1 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, triple the expectations for a 1.9 million-barrel draw. Stocks of motor fuel at the US Gulf Coast fell to their lowest since November 2022, while finished motor gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, edged up 30,000 barrels per day to more than 9 million bpd for the first time this year. US crude oil stockpiles also fell unexpectedly as processing increased. Supportive on the demand front, the US bought around 3.25 million barrels of oil for the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve for August delivery. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refining facilities continued for a second day on Wednesday, causing a fire at Rosneft's. biggest refinery in one of the most serious attacks against Russia's energy sector in recent months. After seriously damaging Lukoil's refinery in Nizhny Novgorod on Tuesday, Ukraine hit refineries in the Rostov and Ryazan regions, Russian officials said. In Ryazan, a drone attack caused a fire at Rosneft's refinery. Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the refinery had been forced to shut down two primary oil refining units. Separately, concerns on how crude output would pan out in March, given the rise in February, kept a lid on prices.