BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 14. Global oil reserves in the second quarter of 2022 showed an average increase of 1 million barrels per day, which is the first surplus since the same period of 2020, Trend reports with the reference to the latest research from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
According to the report, global oil inventories’ capacity increased by 5 million barrels in May, after surging by more than 100 million barrels in April, mainly due to non-OECD countries.
However, a relatively small increase in reserves in May masks another sharp increase in oil reserves in non-OECD countries (58.5 million barrels), dominated by a significant jump of 45.5 million barrels in China. On the contrary, the total reserves in the OECD countries decreased by 16.9 million tons, while the reduction in state reserves was partially offset by an increase in industrial reserves.
“In May, OECD total industry stocks rose by 15.2 million barrels (490,000 barrels per day), as crude oil, NGL and feedstocks increased by 8.1 million barrels and petroleum products rose by 7.1 million barrels. Total OECD stocks stood at 2.691 million barrels, still 301.3 million barrels below the 2017-2021 average,” the report added.
OECD industrial crude oil inventories rose by 6.8 million barrels in May in line with the seasonal trend. This was the fourth monthly increase in a row, averaging 580,000 barrels per day since February. OECD Europe showed a significant increase of 12.4 million barrels, while OECD America and OECD Asia Oceania decreased by 1.9 million barrels and 3.7 million barrels, respectively.
Meanwhile, “benchmark crude oil futures plunged by more than $20 per barrel in June as a worsening economic outlook fuelled a broad market sell-off. At the time of writing, Brent was below $100 per barrel, while WTI traded at around $96 per barrel. Price premiums for physical barrels widened on rising seasonal demand for both crude and products while supply remains constrained,” the report noted.
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