The oil price has pulled back in late trading today after a surprise report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a substantial lift in US inventories
Earlier in the day, the EIA showed that domestic reserves jumped by 2.26 million barrels last week in complete contrast to analysts’ expectations for a reduction of 2.3 million barrels.
“Today’s EIA report should provide some headwinds to the week’s crude rally as a build of 2.3 million barrels stands in stark contrast to analyst expectations and yesterday’s API expectation of a more than 4 million barrel draw,” said ClipperData oil analyst Troy Vincent.
Also pressuring the oil price was news out of Libya that they plan to ramp up oil production through pipelines from Sharara and El Feel oil fields which have reopened and have a capacity to deliver around 270,000 barrels a day.
"The big news of the day is that it looks like we're going to get more crude out of Libya," said James Williams, president of energy consultant WTRG Economics in Arkansas.
"The big question is what will OPEC do about the Libyan increase. With Libya excluded from the production cut agreement, I anticipate the Saudis will unilaterally balance the Libyan crude," he added.