The oil prices They ended a week of great volatility this Friday, in a market that remains firm.
the barrel of North Sea Brent for June delivery gained 1.62% in London to $109.34. This is the fourth consecutive rise in Brent, which ends the month at its highest level since April 18.
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June, for its part, fell 0.63% to 104.69 dollars in New York. The WTI he fell off a cliff in the last minutes of the session after spending all day on positive ground.
Prices were buoyed during the day by the change in position of Germany on Russian oil imports and the prospect of a close agreement on a European Union embargo on Russian hydrocarbons.
However, for Bill O’Grady, head of research at Confluence Investment Management, the operators “have not yet integrated” the consequences of a measure of this dimension in prices.
“We could see much higher prices“If the EU closes the Russian tap, he said.
According to figures from the Bloomberg agency, Russia it managed to export an average of 4.66 million barrels a day of crude in April, close to the level of 5 million a day in December, well before the war.
“They will be able to redirect part of their oil in the direction of Asiabut they don’t have the infrastructure to transport that much to that part of the world,” O’Grady said.
For Edward Moya, from Oanda, if the health situation ends up improving in Chinacrude oil prices could rise 5% more and approach 115 dollars in the case of Brent.
The market does not expect changes in the production schedule during the monthly meeting of the OPEC and its allies within Opec+, which will take place next Thursday.
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