The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil market plunged on Thursday after it had been on the downside since midweek.
The upcoming meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) is expected to extend the current voluntary production cuts. The organization will begin meeting online on June 2.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported sharp declines in US crude oil inventories this week.
For now, the API recorded a decrease of 6.49 million barrels in US Weekly Crude Oil Stocks and the EIA recorded a production decrease of 4.156 million barrels in Crude Oil Stock Changes at the end of May.
However, the fall in prices in the trading market was caused after the EIA reported that crude oil holdings for refineries increased by 601,000 per day. It was the highest level recorded since December 2019.
The EIA also reported that the rate of filtration use increased by 2.6%.
Holdings of refined crude oil products including gasoline and natural gas stocks both increased over the past week. This will affect the investment sentiment of global markets.
The upcoming OPEC+ production meeting is unlikely to resolve energy market concerns.
According to three other sources, OPEC+ is now considering extending some of the crude oil output cuts into 2025. It is a foreshadowing for voluntary cuts in the third and fourth quarters of 2024.
