Oil prices plunged Wednesday, with WTI futures falling $2.86 from $53.14 to $50.28 per barrel, and Brent futures dropped $3.81 from $55.92 to $52.11 per barrel. The apparent cause was a larger-than-expected 8.2 million barrel (mmb) addition to U.S. crude oil inventories. An 8.2 mmb addition to crude oil storage is actually fairly normal during the annual re-stocking season that we are in now (Figure 2). The 13.8 mmb addition to storage a month ago was larger than yesterday's amount yet prices barely responded. Comparative inventory--the crucial price indicator-only moved up 2.4 mmb (Figure 3).

Source: Forbes March 09, 2017 18:28 UTC