Drillers idled 49 U.S. oil rigs last week, bringing the total to 1,317, the lowest level in two years, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Jan. 23. It was the seventh weekly decline.
Short Options
“The fundamentals are terrible,” Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale SA in New York, said by phone Jan. 23. “The drop in the rig count will have a limited impact. We’re going to see huge builds during the first quarter worldwide.”
Short positions in WTI increased by 6,262 contracts to 94,203 futures and options in the week ended Jan. 20, CFTC data show. Long positions dropped 0.3 percent. Net-long positions fell 3.3 percent to 216,704. Producers increased net-short positions by 7,623 to 132,143 contracts, the most since December 2011.
In other markets, bullish bets on gasoline advanced 5.8 percent to 39,418 contracts, the first gain in five weeks. Futures increased 3.5 percent to $1.3128 a gallon on Nymex in the reporting period.
Pump Prices
Retail gasoline, averaged nationwide, slid to $2.033 a gallon Jan. 25, the lowest since March 2009, according to Heathrow, Florida-based AAA, the largest U.S. motoring group.
Bearish wagers on U.S. ultra low sulfur diesel increased 2.3 percent to 29,943 contracts, the most since the period ended Nov. 4. The fuel slipped 0.4 percent to $1.6266 a gallon in the report week.
Net-short wagers on U.S. natural gas decreased 32 percent to 11,967 lots. The measure includes an index of four contracts adjusted to futures equivalents: Nymex natural gas futures, Nymex Henry Hub Swap Futures, Nymex ClearPort Henry Hub Penultimate Swaps and the ICE Futures U.S. Henry Hub contract.
Nymex natural gas dropped 3.8 percent to $2.831 per million British thermal units during the report week.