The crude oil complex was stable in mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday, as market participants digested both bullish and bearish market indicators from recent headline news.
At 10:15 am Singapore time (0215 GMT), January ICE Brent crude futures were down 8 cents/b (0.11%) from Wednesday's settle to $71.99/b, while the NYMEX December light sweet crude contract was 4 cents/b (0.06%) higher at $61.71/b.
Saudi Arabia and Russia, which have boosted their crude output in recent months, were responsible for a $15/b drop in the price of oil and "should cut at least 1 million b/d instantly," an OPEC delegate told S&P Global Platts Wednesday.
The comments came as Saudi Arabia and Russia were reportedly discussing a production cut in 2019, Russian news agency TASS reported.
"Saudi Arabia and Russia's comment about keeping an eye on supply prevented a further slide in prices," David Lennox, resource analyst at Fat Prophets, said.
The effects of the production cuts from OPEC/non-OPEC was, however, nullified by higher crude inventory and yet another record high US domestic crude production reported by the US Energy Information Administration.
"The US domestic crude oil production jumped to 11.6 million b/d, and that's a significant jump. It's simple, more supply equals to cheaper oil," Lennox added.
"Prices have come down a long way, the market is just wary of the continual sell-offs," St George Bank senior economist Janu Chan said.
"Equity markets rose sharply after the [US] mid-term elections, leading to positive market sentiment. I see some corrective balance in the short-run, maybe $70-$80/b for Brent might be a sweet spot for oil prices" she added.
According to the EIA, US crude inventory rose by 5.78 million barrels to 431.79 million barrels for the week ended November 2.
The build far exceeded analysts' expectations of a 1.9-million-barrel increase in a S&P Global Platts analysis on Monday and pushed inventories to around 2.72% above the five-year EIA-reported average.
Market participants will keep a look out on the Baker Hughes rig count data -- an early indicator of future US crude production -- which will be published Friday.
As of 0215 GMT, the US dollar index was up 0.02% at 96.005.
