CRUDE-OIL prices lost just under 20 per cent of their value in the past month and the single biggest force acting on them has been stocks, particularly US petrol stocks, which have proven to be very resilient.
Fundamentally there is little doubt that the market is balancing. But the pace at which supply and demand move towards balance looks slow and uncertain, and that makes the ride ahead a rocky one, with volatility being the only constant.
Though US petrol demand has been relatively strong - implied demand according to the Energy Information Administration averaged 9.752 million barrels a day over the first four weeks of July versus 9.506mmbd the same time last year - this clearly has not been enough.
US petrol stocks totalled 241.5 million barrels in the week that ended on July 22, an 11.6-per-cent surplus to the five-year average for the same time of year, and with only four weeks to go until the unofficial end of the driving season, the surplus stocks will likely continue.
This is causing some refiners to cut runs. A slowdown in refinery activity - whether caused by maintenance or by economic run cuts - should help tighten product stocks, but will also translate into less crude-oil demand.
Front-month ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) Brent crude futures closed at US$42.14 a barrel on August 1, down 17 per cent from $50.89 ad barrel on July 1, and front-month NYMEX WTI (New York Mercantile Exchange West Texas Intermediate) settled at $40.06 a barrel on August 1, down 19 per cent from $49.65 a barrel on July 1.
The International Energy Agency in its July monthly oil report said global oil market readjustment remained on track after showing an "extraordinary transformation" from a major surplus in the first quarter to close to balance in the second quarter, but also warned that high stocks remained a risk to price stability.
"Although stocks are close to topping out, they are at such elevated levels, especially for products for which demand growth is slackening, that they remain a major dampener on oil prices," the IEA said.
"Unless demand turns out to be stronger than we currently anticipate, products stocks could rise still further and threaten the whole price structure."
Signs of increased drilling activity in the United States and strong Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) production have also had a bearish impact on prices.
Oil rig count
The US oil rig count has increased for the last five weeks. It dropped as low as 316 rigs in the week that ended on May 27, but rose to 374 as of the week ending July 29. Opec crude-oil output meanwhile surged 300,000 barrels a day to close to an eight-year high of 32.73mbpd in June, with steady increases for Saudi Arabia and Iran, an S&P Global Platts survey showed.
Uncertainty continues to surround Libyan and Nigerian oil production, but with ample stocks and supply, this is hardly reason to be bullish about oil prices.