Oil prices mixed as US stockpiles rise & OPEC sees higher demand

Oil benchmarks traded mixed in Asia with the downside being capped by bullish comments from OPEC.

At press time, Brent traded 0.20% lower on the day at $54.16. WTI oil traded flat at $48.23.

The Organization of Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC) on Tuesday forecast higher demand for its oil in 2018 and pointed to signs of a tighter global market.

There is enough evidence that the oil output cut deal is having a desired impact on the market. Brent forward structure is back into backwardation, which is good news for oil bulls.

However, the gains are hard to come as investors still fear a big drop in oil demand due to hurricane Harvey and Irma. Goldman Sachs report says oil demand could drop by some 900K barrels per day this month.

Furthermore, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data released yesterday showed crude inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels in the week to Sept. 8 to 468.8 million, compared with analysts' expectations for an increase of 3.2 million barrels. The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports on stockpiles and refinery runs later