OPEC: OECD oil inventories up by 34.9M barrels in January

Commercial stocks of oil and petroleum products in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in January rose by 34.9 million barrels compared to December, but were 75 million barrels below the five-year average and 124 million barrels below the average in 2015-2019, Report informs referring to the March report of OPEC.

Inventories totaled 2.802 billion barrels, up 147 million barrels from the same period last year, but 75 million barrels below the five-year average and 124 million barrels below the 2015-2019 average, the report said.

In January, oil reserves in the OECD amounted to 1.372 billion barrels, and oil products to 1.43 billion.

Bringing commercial reserves of oil and petroleum products in the world to an average five-year level was originally designated as the goal of the OPEC+ deal. Of all the stocks, the parties to the agreement track stocks in the countries of the OECD most actively.

However, in 2021, the alliance members began to focus on an additional target - the average value of reserves for the period 2015-2019, since oil reserves were at an abnormally high level for almost the entire 2020.