Oil prices fell immediately following Wednesday’s release of the Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) Weekly Petroleum Status Report, which showed a large build to both crude and petroleum product inventories. Oil markets were boosted Tuesday on talk that Iran was potentially willing to join discussions around coordinated OPEC action to help stabilize oil prices, but the EIA data release brought traders back to the reality that global crude and petroleum product supplies remain at record levels.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract settled down 2.8 percent on the NYMEX at $46.77 per barrel, while the Brent front-month contract fell 1.8 percent on the ICE to $49.05 per barrel.

The EIA reported that for the week ending Aug. 19, U.S. stocks for crude and all products (excluding the strategic reserve) was at 1.4 billion barrels, representing a historic high for this time of year, and 9.1 percent higher than during the same period in 2015. U.S. crude inventories rose 2.5 million barrels, versus analyst expectations for a slight increase of about 200,000 barrels.

http://www.downstreamtoday.com/news/article.aspx?a_id=53273

We are burning a bit more than 1,000 bbls/second or 4 million bbls/hours, so soon we will see $50 oil again, but thanks for ruining my morning!