The Oil market came under pressure yesterday, unable to escape the broader risk-off move across markets, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

US crude Oil inventories increase

"Although ICE Brent settled 0.69% lower on the day, Oil performed relatively well compared to other assets. Downward pressure continued in early morning trading today, following a bearish inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute (API)."

"API’s numbers show that US crude Oil inventories increased by 6.5m barrels over the last week, while crude stocks in Cushing grew by 400k barrels. Changes in refined product inventories were more supportive, with gasoline and distillate stocks falling by 5.7m barrels and 2.5m barrels, respectively. While bearish for crude, the release is supportive for refined product cracks."

"Reports that Ukraine claimed to have struck Lukoil’s Norsi refinery in Russia offered further support to the refined products market, particularly middle distillates. Norsi has a capacity of around 340k b/d. The combination of both recent sanctions and continued Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refinery infrastructure is providing upside to the middle distillate market, with the ICE gasoil crack trading around US$30/bbl."