The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) fell 2.1% this Wednesday and closed at US$79.16 a barrel despite a sharp weekly decline in US commercial crude oil reserves, good news that was imposed by the trajectory of the increases in prices. interest rates.
At the close of business in NY, the barrel of WTI for delivery in May fell 1.70 dollars compared to the close of the previous day.
The US benchmark crude fell today despite a drop in commercial reserves by 4.6 million barrels, almost four times higher than expected and which places levels at their lowest in more than two months, according to the US Government. .
Analysts attributed the move lower to suspicions that major central banks, the Federal Reserve (Fed) in the US and the European Central Bank (ECB), are considering raising interest rates again in the short term, which strengthened the dollar.
Since the dollar is the currency in which Texas is traded, its strengthening against other currencies makes it more expensive for foreign buyers, which affects its demand.
Apart from that, some weak data on production china industry known today dampened the spirits raised recently by the solid rise in its Gross Domestic Product and clouded expectations of increased fuel consumption in the Asian giant.
Turning to geopolitics, Sevens Report analyst Tom Essaye noted progress between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan autonomous authority to unlock a port terminal, which would allow an additional 500,000 barrels a day to be placed on the market.
Black gold thus seems to lose the upward momentum of last week, which was marked by the publication of a report from the International Energy Agency (AIE) that forecasts an increase in demand -driven by China-, up to a record figure of 101.9 million barrels per day.
On the other hand, futures contracts for natural gas for May they yielded US$0.14 dollars, up to US$2.22 dollars, and gasoline maturing in the same month fell almost 0.11 dollars, up to 2.65.