Except for the initial rise in prices, the OPEC and N-OPEC don’t seem to have much of an impact in the market so far and of the reasons for that has been the billions of barrels of oil sitting idle as stock, ready to be dispatched. Compared to these billions of barrels of oil and other petroleum products, the OPEC production is expected to reduce just 1.758 million barrels per day. If the demand doesn’t outpace the increase in supply significantly, then it is an affair of many months, before these high levels of inventory decline.

According to latest data from Energy information Administration (EIA), about 2.042 billion barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products are sitting as stocks in the United States. Some might point out that this number includes stocks under Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) which is about 695.08 million barrels. But a new legislation introduced by Congress will lead to sales from Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) too.

Since August last year, total stocks have declined by 26.6 million barrels but that is minuscule compared to the 370.7 million barrel increase since 2014 January to August 2016.