Speculators cut U.S. crude oil net longs-CFTC

Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to February 21, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.

The speculator group cut its combined futures and options position in New York and London by 14,150 contracts to 156,322 during the period.

The data below exclude trader positions in the NYMEX financial crude oil futures contract, which is normally included in our aggregate calculations. The data were not provided by the CFTC this week.

 Selected categories from the CFTC weekly Commitment of Traders report:

FUTURES + OPTIONS        Managed                 Swaps              Producer
                             Net        Chg        Net        Chg        Net        Chg
NYMEX Crude              164,292    -26,958   -298,368       -533     15,667      5,894
ICE WTI crude             -7,970     12,808    -40,865      1,690    -14,403        -15
                      ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total                    156,322    -14,150   -339,233      1,157      1,264      5,879

RBOB                      55,396     -3,950     27,824        433    -92,273      5,630
Heating oil               17,003         59     51,098      3,726    -77,298      1,525

                           Other             NonReport                  Open
                             Net        Chg        Net        Chg   Interest        Chg
NYMEX Crude               91,055     18,333     27,354      3,265  2,173,215   -129,497
ICE WTI crude             67,203    -10,086     -3,965     -4,399    526,782    -39,185
                      ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total                    158,258      8,247     23,389     -1,134  2,699,997   -168,682

RBOB                       4,088        967      4,965     -3,081    320,077    -24,255
Heating oil                  471        294      8,725     -5,603    264,664    -20,581
=======================================================================================
FUTURES ONLY             Managed                 Swaps              Producer
                             Net        Chg        Net        Chg        Net        Chg
NYMEX Crude              134,036    -29,743   -242,480     -2,969      1,183      9,042
ICE WTI crude             -8,157     11,281    -29,683      1,998    -18,071       -729
                      ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total                    125,879    -18,462   -272,163       -971    -16,888      8,313
RBOB                      55,392     -3,947     28,143        541    -92,600      5,685
Heating oil               16,886        -49     51,696      3,948    -77,787      1,435

                           Other             NonReport                  Open
                             Net        Chg        Net        Chg   Interest        Chg
NYMEX Crude               85,635     21,873     21,626      1,797  1,756,029    -65,572
ICE WTI crude             59,847     -8,325     -3,936     -4,225    430,682    -25,095
                      ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total                    145,482     13,548     17,690     -2,428  2,186,711    -90,667
RBOB                       4,285        970      4,780     -3,249    318,780    -24,262
Heating oil                  679        274      8,526     -5,608    259,558    -21,087

Source: Reuters