Crude prices register slight gain due to fall in US inventories

The oil pricesEnlivened during the session, they closed slightly higher on Wednesday after a somewhat disappointing decline in prices. US oil stocks, but with favorable employment data.

The price of a barrel of North Sea Brent for delivery in March it rose 1% to $ 80.80, breaking the 80 mark for the first time since the appearance of the omicron variant in late November.

In New York, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery was up 1.11% to $ 77.85.

In the morning, the crude oil price rose sharply after the announcement that the private sector in the United States created almost twice as many jobs as expected in December, and a total of more than 6 million in 2021, according to the monthly survey of the business services company ADP published on Wednesday.

However, the rise in price moderated when it became known that the US crude inventories fell 2.1 million barrels last week, when analysts expected a much larger drop of 3.65 million barrels, according to the median number of analysts polled by the Bloomberg agency.

However, United States gasoline stocks rose 10.1 million barrels for the week to 232.8 million barrels, the EIA said, comparing with analysts’ estimates in a Reuters poll of a 1.8 million barrel rise. Analysts referred to weak demand during the last week of 2021 as people sheltered from the advance of the omicron variant of coronavirus.

“Markets were surprised by the increase in gasoline inventory volume as we began to see the impact of omicron on demand, as more people are staying home for work,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

The price trend remains well targeted “while supply remains tight,” the analyst added, citing production disruptions in several countries such as Ecuador, Libya and Nigeria.

The producers of the OPEC +, which include members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with Russia and others, agreed on Tuesday to add another 400,000 barrels a day to supplies in February, as they have done every month since August.

While the OPEC + raised its production target, it is likely to have a difficult time reaching it as members such as Nigeria, Angola and Libya face problems increasing production, analysts at Barclays said in a note.

“OPEC + has taken the path of least resistance (political) as it continues to stay the course in increasing production targets, but actual incremental supplies are likely to be much lower, similar to omicron’s effect on demand. “.

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