Oil slips on US stock build, Mideast disruptions in focus

Oil prices fell today, retreating after a two-day rally following an unexpectedly large build in US crude inventories, while supply disruptions in the Middle East lingered.

Brent crude futures fell $1.22, or 0.67%, to $107.53 a barrel early this morning, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were down $1.64, or 1.55%, at $104.19 a barrel.

Both benchmarks settled more than $3 higher and at their highest levels since May 19 yesterday, as the Yanbu loading suspension stoked supply concerns and Saudi Arabia cut oil shipments to Europe.

US crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories all rose last week, market sources said yesterday, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute.

Crude inventories rose by 7.1 million barrels in the week ended September 11, the sources said, citing API data. That compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of about 1.6 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll.

API's data showed unexpected builds in gasoline and diesel inventories have weighed on prices, but regional stock increases do not change the underlying tightness in the global crude market, Haitong Futures said in a note.

Despite the inventory pressure, prices remained resilient as traders focused on disruptions to physical supplies, said Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights at Phillip Nova, in a report today.

"The bigger concern remains the disruption to Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline and Yanbu export infrastructure, following attacks on Saudi energy facilities," she said.

European diesel futures rose to a record high yesterday, further highlighting tightness in fuel markets as Middle East disruptions constrained crude and product flows.

Sources said that oil loadings at Saudi Arabia's Yanbu port had been suspended after the world's biggest crude exporter shut its East-West pipeline following an attack by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Friday.

Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfers off Oman's Sohar port after drone attacks damaged its key oil pipeline to the Red Sea, people familiar with the matter said today.

Visible vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz remained in the single digits at four yesterday, down from seven a day earlier, preliminary shipping data showed today, falling well short of the 10-day average of 18.

The drop in traffic through the waterway that handled a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply before the US-Israeli war on Iran started comes after attacks in the region intensified.