naturalgas prices fall sharply after the latest weekly rise in us stockpiles oil futures headed higher finding support ahead of sundays opec decision on production levels even as us government data reveal an unexpected weekly rise in domestic crude supplies oil is coming off a large may tumble tied to worries about the global economic outlook overall the us petroleum supply data were bearish said tariq zahir managing member at tyche capital advisors however prices  not to our surprise  are strong as several factors will come into play in the days and weeks ahead the energy information administration on thursday reported that us commercial crude inventories rose by 45 million barrels for the week ended may 26 that compared to an average decline of 34 million barrels forecast by analysts polled by sp global commodity insights the american petroleum institute late wednesday reported a 52 million barrel increase in us crude inventories last week according to a source citing the data the build in crude stocks primarily reflects a rebound in net imports following a week of both strong exports and extremely week imports amid restrained domestic refinery runs said troy vincent senior market analyst at dtn the eia report which was released a day later than usual due to mondays memorial day holiday also showed a weekly inventory fall of 200000 barrels for gasoline while distillate supplies climbed by 1 million barrels analysts had forecast weekly declines of 500000 barrels for gasoline and 280000 for distillates crude stocks at the cushing okla nymex delivery hub climbed by 17 million barrels for the week the eia said while oil stocks in the strategic petroleum reserve fell by 25 million barrels wti fell more than 11 in may its biggest monthly percentage drop since november 2021 brent dropped 87 in may its largest onemonth drop since november 2022 manufacturing industrial and freight data globally continues to reflect pronounced weakness in energy and oil intensive business activity said vincent combine this with strong nonopec supply growth and the eia acknowledging that they were underestimating us crude production by the tune of nearly 500000 barrels per day in their latest monthly data released wednesday for march and you can see why the pressure is growing for opec  and particularly russia  to actually deliver on their announced production cuts if they hope to keep prices from sliding lower a june 4 meeting of opecthe organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies including russiais in focus the meeting could be a market mover if we see another cut in production said tyche capital advisors zahir in early april opec announced an unexpected additional reduction in output quotas that went into effect in may opec wants to see higher markets as market share is being impacted by russia selling oil to china zahir said saudi arabias energy minister earlier this month warned that short sellers should watch out remarks that were viewed by analysts as a warning that a further round of production cuts could be in the offing but russias deputy prime minister subsequently said he saw no need for additional measures readwhy opec will have a hard time surprising the oil market this weekend oil market participants expect the nine major opec producers which announced voluntary production cuts in april to keep production unchanged and while they will most certainly ramp up the ouching rhetoric one possible outcome is that opec could broaden the cuts to smaller producers said stephen innes managing director of spi asset management in a note however in the absence of russian compliance whether this will stem the pessimistic tide is debatable in the us the debtceiling bill passed the house of representatives in a clear majority on wednesday and now heads to the senate where the bill is expected to pass there too said victoria dircksen commodity analyst at schneider electric in a daily report if the bill is passed it will prevent the us federal government from avoiding defaulting on its debt and it will also enhance the prospects of oil demand growth in the worlds largest consumer of oil she said meanwhile naturalgas futures continued to trade lower after the us energy information administration reported on thursday that us naturalgas supplies in storage rose by 110 billion cubic feet for the week ended may 26 analysts called for a storage increase of 107 billion cubic feet on average according to a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights which said that for the same week a year ago supplies climbed by a much smaller 82 billion cubic feet this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal