I wrote – Marwa Al Ghoul
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 01:00 AM
The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries published indicators Oil prices And its derivatives and natural gas prices, as Brent crude for April delivery recorded $83.08 a barrel, West Texas crude recorded $76.29 a barrel for March delivery, and the average OPEC basket of crudes recorded $82.07 a barrel for February 2023.
The average price of premium gasoline in the US market was $4,151 per gallon, and the average price of diesel in the US market was $4,480 per gallon.
The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries “OAPEC” published the weekly developments in the global oil markets in light of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, as crude oil futures prices recorded their longest series of daily losses during the current year, and are declining on a weekly basis by 3.9% for Brent crude and 4.2% for West crude. Texas.
In this context, oil prices were negatively affected by the following:
1- US commercial crude oil inventories rose at the fourth largest weekly record pace, reaching their highest level since June 2021.
2- Expectations regarding Russia’s tendency to maintain the amount of its current oil exports, despite its plan to cut production by 500,000 bpd during next March.
3- The US Department of Energy announced its intention to sell 26 million barrels of its strategic oil stocks, with the expectation that US shale oil production will rise to a record level.
4- US gasoline inventories rose for the sixth week in a row, recording their highest levels since March 2022, in light of weak domestic demand.
5- The possibility of continuing to raise interest rates by the US Federal Reserve. This raised concerns about a slowing economy and weak future demand for oil.
Oil prices also received support from the following:
1- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency raised their expectations regarding the growth of global oil demand during the year 2023, supported by the recovery of the Chinese economy after easing restrictions related to preventing the spread of the Corona virus.
