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London)
By Julia Payne
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a fifth day
running on Thursday after official data showed a further
increase in U.S. crude and fuel inventories while the
ever-present COVID-19 pandemic clouded the prospects for demand
recovery.
Brent crude fell 50 cents, or 0.74%, to $67.50 a
barrel by 1150 GMT after dropping 0.82% on Wednesday. U.S. oil
was down 53 cents, or 0.82%, at $64.07 after shedding
0.3% in the previous session. Both contracts are down nearly 3%
over the past five days.
"Short-term developments - stuttering vaccine rollouts and
the build in U.S. oil inventories - are driving sentiment, but
the longer-term oil outlook is still encouraging," said PVM Oil
Associates analyst Tamas Varga.
"Yesterday's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting provided a boost
to equities ... U.S. economic growth has been revised upwards
while unemployment is expected to decline."
Government data on Wednesday showed U.S. crude inventories
have risen for four straight weeks after severe cold weather
forced shutdowns at refineries in the south. An industry report
estimating a decline had raised hopes of a halt to the gains.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels last
week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on
Wednesday, a day after the American Petroleum Institute (API)
estimated that there had been a 1 million barrel decline.
Varga added that the market would waiting for U.S.
manufacturing data next week for further indications on the
health of the world's largest economy.
A slowdown in some vaccination programmes and the prospect
of more restrictions to control the coronavirus tempered
expectations for a recovery in fuel use.
Britain said on Thursday that global supply bumps meant its
vaccine rollout would be slower than hoped in the coming weeks
but it expected deliveries to increase from May.
A number of European countries have halted use of the
AstraZeneca shot because of concerns about possible side
effects, though the World Health Organization said that Europe
should continue to use the vaccine.
(Reporting by Julia Payne and Aaron Sheldrick
Editing by David Goodman)
