London: Oil prices stabilize on Wednesday, after a turbulent start to the week, showing a small increase due to a slight drop in commercial reserves of American crude. Around 10:20 a.m. GMT (11:20 a.m. CET), 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, takes 0.96% to 71.80 dollars.
Its American equivalent, the barrel of 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.), for delivery the same month, gains 1.03%, to $67.90.
Oil prices are rising”due to data showing a larger than expected decline in crude oil inventories in the United States“, says Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
On Tuesday, the API, the American federation of professionals in the oil sector, announced a drop in commercial crude reserves of around 600,000 barrels in the United States last week, and a decrease of almost 300,000 barrels for gasoline, which pushes prices up.
However, the API data is considered less reliable than that of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which publishes its weekly statistics on the state of US stocks later on Wednesday.
Furthermore, Saturday’s Israeli attacks on Iran, which spared the country’s energy infrastructure, certainly caused prices to plunge at the start of the week but the market continues to weigh developments in the Middle East.
According to Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM, “in the Middle East, the paradox continues“, with on the one hand discussions started around “looking for a truce“, but on the other side, a conflict which continues.
Indeed, the Israeli Minister of Energy, Eli Cohen, member of the security cabinet, indicated on Wednesday that discussions were underway on the terms of a truce with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army is leading a land offensive.
Lebanese Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that it had launched “a squadron of attack drones” against a military base near Haifa in northern Israel, while Israeli tanks carried out their most extensive incursion in southern Lebanon on Tuesday since the start of the war, announced the official Lebanese news agency Ani .
(c) AFP
Comment Oil rises, decline in American stocks and uncertainties in the Middle East
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