The terminals of the city of Cushing are "storehouses" that provide real oil supplies to Buyers of WTI commodity futures on the NYMEX exchange. The presence of oil in the storage facilities of the US state of Oklahoma is a kind of clearing, which guarantees the settlement of purchased contracts at the end of their validity period (week, month or quarter).
The New York Commodity Exchange NYMEX has been operating since the end of the XIX century, having firmly established itself in the first positions in oil trading. The decision that the city of Cushing would become the main oil hub of this site was made in 1983. The city is ideally located at the intersection of pipelines from Canada and the state of Texas, near the drilling platforms of the Gulf of Mexico.
Despite the fact that the commodity futures imply delivery, many of the trading participants use them for speculation, closing positions before expiration (settlement day), earning on price changes. Therefore, the level of Cushing's oil reserves will indicate a balance between the level of real supply and demand.
WTI crude oil is one of the world's main reference grades, whose value forms the price of the" oil mixture " of other countries. 3 billion barrels of oil are traded on the stock exchange every week, i.e. more than 3 million contracts are opened and closed. This is three times higher than the volume of the position of oil traders in the Brent brand.
Data output format for WTI oil reserves
The US Department of Energy publishes data on oil residues every Thursday at 17: 00 Moscow time. The economic calendar includes the figure of the change in the value of reserves, relative to the previous week, expressed in millions of barrels.
The impact of the indicator on the Forex market
Weekly changes in the level of WTI crude oil in the oil storage facilities of the state of Oklahoma directly affect the futures exchange rate on the NYMEX exchange, quotes which are the basis for the value of CFD contracts for oil on the Forex market.
Traders form positions after the exit news, since the economic the calendar does not contain forecast data, only indicators of the past and current period.
The cost of oil indirectly affects the economy, increasing the cost of industrial products and "accelerating" inflation, which ultimately leads to an increase in rates. With a "low base" (minimum interest on the loan), inflation strengthens the national currency, but approaching certain thresholds leads to economic stagnation and its weakening.
Interesting facts
Oil reserves in Cushing are 13% of the total volume of stored oil in the United States. The shale revolution in the United States has led to excess reserves in oil storage facilities due to the banal lack of developed infrastructure, so new oil pipelines are currently being built to avoid an oversupply.
The climatic factor-floods in Canada, sometimes significantly reduces the level of filling of RVS reservoirs.