Oil picks up during European session

Oil prices started again on Monday, with the momentum of the stock markets, in spite of the worries of the investors on the evolution of the pandemic of Covid-19 and the return of the containment measures, unfavorable to the demand, that it could result. Around 3:00 p.m. GMT (5:00 p.m. in Paris), a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for August delivery was worth $ 41.29 in London, up 0.66% from Friday’s close.

In New York, US barrels of WTI for the same month gained 1.22% to 38.96 dollars. The previous week, Brent had dropped 2.8% and WTI by 3.2%. Oil “recovered during the European session in the wake of the equity markets», Craig Erlam, from Oanda. More “momentum is contained, suggesting that oil has peaked for now“, he added.

The symbolic bar of 40 dollars, around which the two indices have evolved in recent days, “is not viable in the prospect of a return to containment and certain mobility restrictions in important markets such as the United States or BrazilSaid Louise Dickson, analyst at Rystad Energy, earlier today.

The world, confronted since last December with the Covid-19 pandemic, crossed Sunday two symbolic thresholds: more than half a million dead and ten million cases. Contagion is increasing in 30 of the 50 American states, especially in the largest and most populated in the south and west of the country: California, Texas and Florida. And some had to take a break from the deconfinement process.

Also in the United States, the energy group Chesapeake Energy, cornered by the plunge in oil prices due to the health crisis, announced Sunday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection to carry out the restructuring of its debt of seven billion dollars.

A time American leader in shale gas exploitation, whose operations extend from Texas to Pennsylvania, the group indicated, in a press release, to have no other choice than this restructuring. Containment “was fatal for the company which had already struggled for years with an enormous burden: its debt“Commented Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank.

But on the other hand, “Chesapeake’s bankruptcy is good news for reducing the global crude surplus, as the shale oil giant is partly responsible for the rapid build-up of world stocks for years and has had a negative impact on oil prices“, She added.

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