The August Brent futures contract traded above $85/bbl all afternoon, rallying sharply to $85.90/bbl at 14:20 BST. Despite softening by 20c in the following hour, the benchmark futures contract climbed to $85.90/bbl at 16:08 BST following a bullish EIA stats announcement. The contract has since eased to $85.40/bbl as of 17:00 BST (time of writing). The EIA announced US oil inventories data for the week ending June 14 today. Crude oil stocks saw a draw of 2.547mb against an API estimate of a 2.264mb build. US gasoline and distillate fuel oil inventories witnessed draws of 2.28mb and 1.726mb, respectively, against forecast builds in both products. However, the US percentage of refinery operable capacity fell 1.5% w/w to 93.5%. In other news, data from the US Department of Labor stated that the number of Americans enrolled for unemployment benefits declined by 5,000 to 238,000 in the week ending June 15. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month and six-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.80/bbl and $3.70/bbl, respectively.
