Oil prices settled at around 9 90 a barrel today, but the prospect of increased supplies from Iran and the United States kept pressure on prices.
Brent crude futures fell 36 cents, or 0.4%, to دولار 90.42 a barrel by 1150 GMT.
WTI crude fell 43 cents, or 0.4%, to دولار 88.93 a barrel.
Crude fell 2 percent on Tuesday as Washington resumed indirect talks with Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
3 factors that determine the fate of the barrel
Eastern Europe is experiencing geopolitical tensions today, especially in light of the Russian threat to invade Ukraine and the alliance of America and Germany against the Kremlin, which consolidated the gains of oil and raised the price of a barrel to ليصل 94 and then fell today to 9 90.42.
There are two other factors in influencing the price of a barrel of oil over the coming period, and possibly curbing the continued increase in the price of a barrel whether Brent or WTI, namely the increase in oil supply both from OPEC or US producers, and the other factor is the withdrawal of some countries such as the United States, Japan and India from their oil reserves to cope with the increase in prices.
A deal could lift U.S. sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan oil exports and add fast supplies to the market, but unresolved issues remain.
Markets were also hit by the latest monthly report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which raised its forecast for U.S. crude production to an average of 11.97 million barrels per day this year.
On the other hand, political risks appeared to have eased on Wednesday, according to several analysts.
“Concerns about a new escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict appear to have eased somewhat after recent diplomatic efforts, limiting the impact of risks on the Oil Price,”said Kommersant commodities analyst Carsten Fritsch.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he believed steps could be taken to de-escalate the crisis after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and calling on all sides to calm down.
But U.S. inventory data limited the impact of downward pressure on prices.
U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute data.
“OPEC” controls the oil market
The OPEC+ group, which includes 23 major oil producers, announced last Wednesday that its production increased by 400 thousand barrels per day in March.
OPEC + is thus committed to moderate increases in its oil production despite pressure from large consumers to accelerate the increase after crude prices reached 7-year highs.
OPEC and its allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+ that produces more than 40 percent of global oil supplies, have faced calls from the United States, India and others to pump more oil as global economies recover from the pandemic.
But OPEC + agreed to stick to the target rate by pumping monthly increases of 400 thousand barrels per day and blamed the rise in prices on the failure of consumer countries to secure adequate investments in fossil fuels as they switch to less polluting energy.
Several OPEC+ sources also said prices had increased due to tensions between Russia and the United States. Washington accuses Moscow of planning to invade Ukraine, which Russia denies.
Increasing oil production is complicated by the fact that many OPEC members are struggling to meet even monthly production targets and there is no excess capacity to increase production.