U.S. Cash Crude -WTI advances despite stockbuild
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - While differentials for most cash crude oil grades were steady, outright prices received a boost Wednesday from stronger futures, which weathered a round of bearish industry stock figures.
The March crude oil futures contract gained 15 cents a barrel to $12.45 early Wednesday. Expectations had been that the market would face selling pressure early in the session, following figures showing a six million barrel build in crude stocks last week.
Those figures, released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute, placed nationwide crude inventories at 333 million barrels. That compared to total stocks of 321 million at this time last year, and just 296 million two years ago.
But U.S. crude oil traders seemed to look past the report, focusing instead on covering short positions.
"It's a bit of a surprise to me," one trader said of the recovery, which followed a two days of mild losses.
Nonetheless, it helped push cash crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate/Cushing to $12.45/$12.50 given a slight exchange-for-physical premium.
The only grade which showed significant moves against the benchmark was West Texas Sour/Midland, dropping more than a nickel to trade at minus $1.40 a barrel. Cash traders said it later recovered to a discount of $1.40/$1.35 a barrel.
The cash crude market was otherwise static. Light Louisiana Sweet/St. James found demand at a steady minus 55 cents, after gaining 10 cents Tuesday.
And Heavy Louisiana Sweet/Empire, its sister grade, found notional interest at 85 to 65 cents under WTI/Cushing. Eugene Island crude was pegged at minus $1.30/minus $1.20, unchanged from Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate/Midland was quoted at -30/-25 cents a barrel.
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