This should cancel a lot of negative sentiment on the API gasoline number.
Russia to cease ALL fuel exports this month.
Bloomberg Energy
Wed, 04 Aug 1999, 9:46am EDT
8/4 8:52 N.Y. Crude Oil Seen Steady as Russia Restricts Fuel Exports
By Ragulan Sriskanthan
New York, Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil is expected to
open little changed after Russia announced plans to reduce fuel
exports, a move that could force refineries to buy and process
more oil.
Crude oil for September delivery on the New York Mercantile
Exchange is expected to open 5 cents higher from $20.38 a barrel.
Brent crude oil for September delivery on London's International
Petroleum Exchange rose as much as 24 cents to $19.64 a barrel,
after dropping as much as 15 cents in early morning trading.
Russia stopped all gasoline exports this month in a bid to
keep rising domestic gasoline prices in check, a spokesman for
the Energy Ministry said. The move came a day after the American
Petroleum Institute's weekly survey, released last night, showed
an unexpected rise in U.S. gasoline supplies and an almost 8
percent slump in demand.
''The Russians have decided to restrict their fuel exports
and that's what is supporting the market,'' said Ben Cooper, a
broker with ADM Investor Services International Ltd.
The API's weekly survey showed the first increase in
gasoline supplies in eight weeks, indicating inventories swelled
at a time of year when peak demand usually erodes supplies.
The API survey showed gasoline inventories rose by 1.9
million barrels, or 1 percent, to 210.1 million barrels in the
week ended July 30, against analysts' expectations that supplies
fell by between 1.8 million barrels and 2.4 million barrels.
Gasoline demand slumped 7.6 percent and imports more than
doubled, leading to the unexpected increase in supplies,
according to the report.
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