This Week In The Oil Market: Stocks Drag Down Oil, Hurricane Michael Triggers Shutdowns

The red-hot oil market cooled this week, as a stock market sell-off weighed on both WTI and Brent crude prices after they hit multi-year highs last week.

Here’s a look at the latest key numbers from the oil market and some of the headlines that were moving oil prices this week.

Weekly Reports

On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a 9.75 million-barrel increase in U.S. crude supply during the week ending October 5. Gasoline supply increased by 3.4 million barrels and distillates supply dropped by 3.5 million barrels.

On Thursday, the Energy Information Administration reported domestic crude oil inventories held by U.S. firms increased by 6 million barrels during the week ending Sept. 28. The increase exceeded analyst expectations of a 1.6 million barrel rise.

On Friday, Baker Hughes reported U.S. energy companies added 8 oil rigs last week. U.S. drillers have now added a total of 126 new rigs in the past year. The total U.S. active oil rig count now stands at 869.

Headlines

Oil prices plummeted Wednesday and Thursday as panicked investors unloaded assets indiscriminately during a 1,300-point sell-off in the Dow. Brent crude oil prices dropped 5.6 percent over the 48-hour stretch as investors grow concerned that rising interest rates may soon begin to stifel U.S. economic growth.

On Thursday, oil producers including Exxon Mobil Corp XOM, Chevron Corp CVX and BP Plc BP said they began resuming production at their Gulf of Mexico facilities following Hurricane Michael. The region lost an estimated 2.39 million barrels of oil this week due to hurricane-related shutdowns.

On Friday, the International Energy Agency said the global oil market is “adequately supplied for now” following a rise in crude oil production over the past six months. The IEA said Iranian output dropped by 180,000 bpd in September ahead of new sanctions set to go into effect on Nov. 4. The IEA also cut its 2018 and 2019 global oil demand forecast by 110,000 bpd for both years, dropping its projections to 1.28 million bpd for 2018 and 1.36 million bpd in 2019.