2023-07-20 10:48:10
London: Oil was stable on Thursday, the relative fall in crude inventories in the United States last week being offset by a strengthening of the dollar, which makes black gold less attractive for investors. Around 10:10 GMT (12:10 CET) , the barrel of Brent BRENT Brent or North Sea crude is a variation of crude oil serving as a benchmark in Europe, listed on the InterContinentalExchange (ICE), a stock exchange specializing in energy trading. It has become the first international standard for setting oil prices. North Sea for September delivery was up 0.08% at $79.52.
Its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI WTI West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas Light Sweet, is a variation of crude oil that serves as a standard in pricing crude oil and as a commodity for oil futures contracts with the Nymex (New York Mercantile Exchange). ), the stock exchange specializing in energy.), for delivery in August, of which it is the last day of trading, gained 0.15% to 75.46 dollars.
The oil market “has consolidated following recent losses”, commented analysts at Energi Danmark.
On the one hand, data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) on commercial crude reserves in the United States was supportive of prices, with inventories contracting by 700,000 barrels during the week ended July 14.
But the decline in crude oil reserves is nevertheless well below the contraction of 2.5 million barrels that was anticipated by analysts, according to a consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
And the fall in stocks was “offset by the strengthening of the American dollar, which makes oil (…) less attractive for foreign investors”, continue the analysts of Energi Danmark.
Oil purchases, denominated in dollars, are indeed less attractive for investors using foreign currencies, the appreciation of the greenback reducing their purchasing power.
Other contradictory factors in the oil market: “production cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia, first”, then “better inflation data from the United States, the euro zone and the United Kingdom, which might boost the economic outlook” gave some support to the crude priceunderlines Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda.
But at the same time, weaker-than-expected Chinese growth is still worrying, especially since China is the world’s largest importer of crude oil. And support measures from the Chinese government are still pending.
(c) AFP
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