2023-10-12 21:27:00
Closing price: Oil prices ended mixed on Thursday, weighed down by a surprise and massive increase in American crude stocks, which raises fears for the demand for black gold. The price of a 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 became the first international standard for setting oil prices. from the North Sea for delivery in December, nibbled 0.20%, to close at 86.00 dollars. He slowed down at the end of the session, following having gained more than 2%.
Its American equivalent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI WTI West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also called Texas Light Sweet, is a variation of crude oil that serves as a standard in setting the price of crude and as a raw material for oil futures contracts with the Nymex (New York Mercantile Exchange). ), the stock exchange specializing in energy.), with expiry in November, lost 0.69%, to 82.91 dollars.
“The significant increase in (US) reserves was significantly higher than the market expected,” commented Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates, which put pressure on prices.
These commercial crude stocks increased by 10.2 million barrels last week, while analysts were counting on a contraction of 1.4 million, according to the consensus established by the Bloomberg agency.
The influx of crude into American inventories is due, in part, to the deceleration of refineries, whose utilization rate fell to 85.7%, the lowest since January and down 8 percentage points in one month .
This is a sign, for Andy Lipow, that traditional maintenance operations are in full swing, before the start of the cold season, which usually corresponds to a renewed demand for diesel and fuel oil.
Among the other elements of explanation, in addition to the fall in exports (-38% over one week), the analyst cited American production, which reached, over the period considered, a historic record, at 13.2 million barrels per day.
This is more than the 13.1 million barrels recorded in two separate weeks in February and March 2020, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the effect of a drop in demand, linked to confinements, production then plunged, before gradually increasing.
Encouraged by the rise in prices in August and September, American producers, particularly for shale oil, accelerated further, partially compensating for the voluntary restrictions imposed by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The slowdown in prices on Thursday was also accentuated, according to Edward Moya of Oanda, by the publication of the CPI consumer price index, which came out above expectations in September, reviving fears of see very high rates for a long time.
Crude prices have now returned to the level they were at before the surprise offensive by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday.
For Andy Lipow, the market has calmed his fears of seeing the war spread and disrupt supplies of black gold.
“The probability of closing the Strait of Hormuz“, the sole crossing point for exports from several major producers in the Middle East,”seems very weak“, estimates the analyst. “And if Israel attacked Iran, it would be military sites rather than oil installations.“
The United States indicated not having evidence showing that Iran had participated in the preparation of the Hamas attack.
(c) AFP
Comment Oil declines following surprise jump in US stocks
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