Oil holds biggest gain in 6 weeks on record US refinery runs

Bloomberg

Oil held gains after advancing the most in almost six weeks as US refiners processed a record amount of crude, while OPEC and other producing nations trim output to stabilize the market. Oil has been unable to sustain its rally above $55, driven by the deal between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other nations to pump less crude, amid concern that rising prices will spur more supply. While Middle East producers including Saudi Arabia have signaled they’re sticking to the pledged reductions, the US recently raised this year’s output forecast and explorers have added drilling rigs for 10 straight weeks.
“Saudi and other core members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries remain most committed to the cut in supplies,” said Carsten Menke, commodities analyst at Julius Baer Group Ltd. in Zurich. US crude inventories expanded by 4.1 million barrels last week, the EIA reported on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected a 1.5 million-barrel gain. Crude production increased by 176,000 barrels a day to 8.95 million barrels a day, the highest level since April.
Kuwait has cut output by 133,000 barrels a day to 2.7 million barrels a day, Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouk said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. Iraq is in talks with international companies to trim production in order to comply with the OPEC accord, and will arrange for the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to reduce its output, Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said at the same conference.