Oil prices fell on Wednesday, with August WTI crude closing down -0.14 (-0.21%) and August RBOB gasoline closing down -0.0256 (-1.18%). The drop was driven by expectations of a global oil surplus later in the year, exacerbated by President Trump refraining from new sanctions on Russian oil exports and a strong dollar index.

OPEC+ agreed to raise crude production by 548,000 bpd starting August 1, surpassing expectations and signaling a strategy to reduce oil prices. Saudi Arabia hinted at additional increases to penalize overproducing members. Despite this, Bloomberg reported a possible pause in production hikes from October, citing concerns of a demand slowdown leading to a supply glut.

Crude oil stored on tankers globally decreased by -4.6% to 78.03 million bbl, supporting oil prices. The weekly EIA report showed a draw in US crude inventories by -3.859 million bbl, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose. US crude oil production slightly declined to 13.375 million bpd, below the record high of 13.631 million bpd.

Baker Hughes reported a decrease of -1 rig in active US oil rigs to a new low of 424 rigs. The number of US oil rigs has sharply dropped from the high of 627 rigs in December 2022. Rich Asplund did not hold any positions in the mentioned securities, and all data is for informational purposes only.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: Crude Oil Prices Fall Due to a Focus on Oil Surplus