Commodities: DoE data boosts WTI futures, net oil imports lowest since 1992

Energy futures climbed on Thursday following the release of data showing a large drawdown in US stockpiles, which helped to buoy the entire complex.

According to the latest weekly figures from the Department of Energy, commercial crude oil inventories in the States declined by 1.6m barrels a day over the week ending on 16 February.

Analysts had forecast an increase of 1.8m b/d; however, Thomas Pugh at Capital Economics cautioned that the drop was mainly the result of a big fall in the nation's imports, which at over 7.0m b/d were down by an average of 867,000 b/d versus the prior week.

Indeed, with exports rising by 722,000 b/d, net imports fell below the 5.0m mark for the first time since 1992, Pugh pointed out.

"Oil prices jumped by almost $1 per barrel on the release of today's report as lower crude stocks, falling net imports and signs that production is levelling out all boosted sentiment. However, we think that US production is likely to resume its upward trend over the next few weeks. Net imports may also rebound if the Brent-WTI spread remains narrow, as it is cheaper for some refineries in the Gulf coast to import crude than to ship it from the middle of the US," Pugh cautioned.

Against that backdrop, as of 22:03 GMT West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for next month delivery traded on NYMEX were 1.57% higher to $62.65 a barrel, alongside more modest gains for March gasoline and heating oil futures.

As an aside, in its latest Annual Energy Outlook the Energy Information Administration, the DoE's statistical arm, projected that US tight oil output would exceed 8.2m b/d by the early 2040s and account for 70% of total US output, versus 54% in 2017.

March 2018 natural gas on the other hand was 1.62% lower to $2.62/MMBTU.

Meanwhile, and from a bird's eye view, the US dollar spot index was drifting lower by 0.28% to 89.75, alongside a rise of 0.45% to 88.67 for Bloomberg's commodity index.

Gold managed to eke a gain of 0.13%, finding a bid towards the end of the session, which saw the April 2018 COMEX contract close at $1,333.80/oz..

In the same space, earlier three-month copper futures on the LME had risen to $7,162 per metric tonne after opening at $7,088 per tonne.

Soft commodities were decidedly mixed on the other hand, with May 2018 CBOT wheat adding 1.03% to $4.6425 a bushel but similarly-dated cocoa futures on ICE closing 1.24% lower at $2,146 a tonne.