- West Texas Intermediate traded above $72.25/Bbl on Wednesday morning following positive demand signals from Asia and a bullish inventory report from the API
- Industry data showed a substantial decline in U.S. crude stockpiles of 8.54 MMBbl last week (American Petroleum Institute)
- That would take levels to the lowest in over a year if confirmed by government data due later today
- China’s daily crude oil processing rose to a record last month (Bloomberg)
- The country’s refining rate climbed to 14.31 MMBbl/d in May – the highest since August 2021, when Bloomberg first started tracking the data
- China’s processing record came amid stronger margins and increased scrutiny on its independent refiners, which all-together account for 1/4 of the nation’s capacity
- President Biden’s efforts to halt sales of leases to drill for oil and gas on federal land was stopped on Thursday by a federal judge (Forbes)
- The temporary stop to Biden’s executive order came after 14-states sued the administration
- Federal judge Terry Doughty suggested the Biden administration doesn’t have the legal authority to issue a blanket pause on all federal oil and gas leases nationwide
- In the background: the Interior Department says it’s still working on a report looking into federal energy programs, a spokesman said (Forbes)