Oil prices ended higher on Friday, but their momentum was limited by the announcement of the extension of the shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which raised fears for the European economy and the demand for black gold.
The price of Brent crude from the North Sea for October delivery gained 0.71%, to close at 93.02 dollars.
The price of a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also for delivery in October, took 0.30%, to 86.87 dollars.
Oil had gone ball in the lead on Friday, Brent even taking up 3.20%, under the effect of several downwind conditions, firstly the blocking of the Iranian file, according to John Kilduff, of Again Capital.
The United States estimated Thursday that Tehran’s response to the text submitted by the European Union to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement was “unfortunately (…) not constructive”.
The day before, French President Emmanuel Macron had expressed his hope that a compromise would be found “in the coming days”.
“I’m not sure everyone shares their optimism,” Oanda’s Craig Erlam said in a note.
Besides Iran, the market was boosted by the approach of the next meeting on Monday of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies of the OPEC+ agreement.
“The recent fall in prices is an incentive (for the group) to consider a drop in their production,” said John Kilduff.
Saudi Energy Minister Abdelaziz bin Salman opened the door ten days ago to this hypothesis, which has since received the support of several member countries.
For the analyst, the courses also benefited from the announcement of a G7 agreement on the capping of the price of exported Russian oil, which is nevertheless intended, among other things, to lower the average price of gold. black.
“The market thinks that the Russians will not accept” this mechanism, according to John Kilduff.
“They would rather stop supplies than sell at an arbitrarily low price,” which would put supply under pressure and push prices up.
But the advance in prices at the start of the session on Friday was stifled by the announcement of the extension of the shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which provides the bulk of Russian gas deliveries to Europe.
The Gazprom group justified this extension, when deliveries were initially to resume on Saturday following three days of maintenance, by the need to repair a faulty turbine.
The market fears that the worsening energy crisis in Europe might push natural gas prices even higher, already close to their records, “which will slow down the industry, which might cause a recession in Europe”, according to Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates.
This apprehension, combined with the recent wave of new confinements in China, casts the shadow of a downturn in the economy and a depression in oil demand, according to the analyst.
The Dutch TTF, the benchmark for the European natural gas market, closed before Gazprom’s announcement and therefore did not integrate this new development. It ended down more than 12%.
