WTI Midland and Midland Eat Houston, called MEH, eased 10 cents each to their lowest in more than 2 months as release of sweet oil from the Strategic Petroleum reserve has hurt market demand. Wednesday will be the first full day of the three-day roll period. Grades typically tend to be more volatile during the period as traders use the window to net out exposures and square positions. WTI traded at a minus $5.68 discount to Brent, after hitting a high of minus $5.59 and a low $6.00, staying range bound. Exports tend to rise when WTI trades more than $6 below Brent as it makes U.S. linked grades more affordable for foreign buyers. Rising freight rates may also weigh on exports, analysts said, even though most expect the wide arbitrage to offset some of that impact. The WTI–Brent spread will need to widen further to reopen the arbitrage for sweet crude to Europe, so the export increase for sweet oil will be led by Asia, Energy Aspects noted.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by about 3.3 million barrels last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures. That compared with Reuters estimates for a draw of 1.6 million barrels.
* Light Louisiana Sweet for April delivery fell 10
cents to a midpoint of a $2.80 premium and was bid and offered
between a $2.60 and a $3.00 a barrel premium to U.S. crude
futures .
* Mars Sour weakened 75 cents to trade flat at its
midpoint and was bid and offered between a 20-cent premium and a
20-cent discount a barrel to U.S. crude futures .
* WTI Midland eased 10 cents to a midpoint of a
$1.10 premium and traded between a 90-cent and a $1.30 a barrel
premium to U.S. crude futures .
* West Texas Sour eased 55 cents to a midpoint of
a 40-cent discount and was traded between a 20-cent and a
60-cent a barrel discount to U.S. crude futures .
* WTI at East Houston, also known as MEH, traded between
$1.20 and $1.50 over WTI.
* ICE Brent May futures rose $1.53 cents to settle
at $75.32 a barrel.
* WTI April crude futures rose $1.69 to settle at
$69.33 a barrel.
* The Brent/WTI spread narrowed 29 cents to
minus $5.68, after hitting a high of minus $5.59 and a low of
minus $6.00.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Sandra
Maler)
