Commodity Market: US Crude Oil hits a fresh 13-month high on concerns of prolonged energy freeze in Texas

Futures on US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil extended gains from the prior three trading days on Thursday, while hitting a fresh 13-month high, due to concerns that a cold front in Texas, the largest oil-producing state, could disrupt oil output for days.

Texas is facing massive refining outages and oil and gas shut-ins, with nearly 1 million barrels per day of crude oil output being shut, Wood Mackenzie analysts said.

“Oil prices got a boost again from expectations that the disruptions of Texas oil producers and refiners due to the cold storm could last for a while,” Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“With hopes of fresh U.S. economic stimulus and wider roll-outs of the COVID-19 vaccine, oil prices are expected to stay on the bullish trend,” Kikukawa added.

Oil supply concerns were also fueled by a sharper-than-expected drop in US crude oil stocks. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Wednesday that US crude oil inventories had decreased by 5.8 million barrels to roughly 468 million barrels during the week ended February 12th. A consensus of analyst estimates had pointed to a 2.2 million barrel drop.

The official report on oil inventories by the US Energy Information Administration is scheduled to be released later today.

As of 10:00 GMT on Thursday WTI Crude Oil Futures were gaining 0.56% to trade at $61.48 per barrel, after earlier touching an intraday high of $62.29 per barrel, or its strongest price level since January 8th 2020 ($65.65 per barrel). WTI Crude Oil Futures have risen 17.59% so far in February, following another 7.58% surge in January.

Brent Oil Futures were losing 0.43% on the day to trade at $64.62 per barrel, after earlier touching an intraday high of $65.49 per barrel, or its strongest price level since January 20th 2020 ($65.98 per barrel). Brent Oil Futures have risen 17.53% so far in February, following another 6.38% surge in January.

Daily Pivot Levels (traditional method of calculation) – WTI Crude Oil Futures

Central Pivot – $60.77
R1 – $62.10
R2 – $63.07
R3 – $64.40
R4 – $65.74

S1 – $59.80
S2 – $58.47
S3 – $57.50
S4 – $56.54

Daily Pivot Levels (traditional method of calculation) – Brent Oil Futures

Central Pivot – $64.20
R1 – $65.64
R2 – $66.38
R3 – $67.82
R4 – $69.26

S1 – $63.46
S2 – $62.02
S3 – $61.28
S4 – $60.54