FX.co ★ Heating Oil Rebounds With Higher Crude

Heating oil futures in the United States climbed to above $2.52 per gallon, approaching their highest levels since June. This increase comes amid heightened supply risks within the crude feedstock market, which have lifted oil benchmarks despite prior concerns about a potential global oversupply. Recent geopolitical tensions, including Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk following a substantial Russian airstrike on Kyiv, have further tightened short-term seaborne oil flows. Additionally, Lukoil's decision to implement staff reductions across its worldwide trading divisions in anticipation of forthcoming U.S. sanctions has contributed to these supply constraints. Experts have indicated that rerouting challenges and slower unloading processes might result in approximately one-third of Russia's seaborne exports being delayed in tankers. This situation is exacerbated by reports indicating that both India and China have reduced their purchases of Russian crude. Earlier in the period, a smaller-than-anticipated decrease in distillate inventories mitigated concerns about the severity of potential winter shortages. Specifically, distillate stockpiles fell by 0.64 million barrels in the week ending November 7th, significantly less than the 2.0 million barrel decline that the market had anticipated, according to the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) report.