The global prices of oil, which closed Tuesday's trading at their highest levels since February 2020, continue to increase on Wednesday. This is due to the data from the American Petroleum Institute. In particular, the API reported the day before that a more significant than planned decline in black gold reserves was recorded in the United States.
Therefore, the price of March Brent oil futures on the London ICE Futures exchange has increased by 1.24% and is $ 57.28 per barrel. At the end of Tuesday's trading session, these contracts increased by 1.7%, that was, to $ 56.58 per barrel.
The price of February WTI oil futures on electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange NYMEX also rose by 1.07% to $53.78 per barrel. At the closing of trading on February 12, futures increased by 1.8% to $ 53.21 per barrel. It is worth noting that the futures for North Sea WTI crude oil have been rising continuously for six consecutive sessions.
In addition, significant support for the black gold market is provided by the US dollar's weakening and the rapid measures taken by China in response to the coronavirus outbreak in the Northern province of Hebei. The coordinated and effective work of the authorities to introduce strict restrictive measures has eased fears about a new wave of COVID-19 and, as a result, a decline in oil demand in China.
The black gold market is quite clearly showing a dynamic bullish trend today, although investors are still hoping that oil reserves will quickly decline as a result of the previously announced reduction in production by Saudi Arabia. However, at some point, it also happens that such bullish trends initiate a market growth above the equilibrium price of oil.
According to the API, the reserves of black gold in the United States declined by 5.8 million barrels last week. This downward movement continued for the third week in a row and was the highest since the end of October last year. A week earlier, inventories also fell by 1.7 million barrels.
The US Department of Energy will publish the official report on energy reserves on Wednesday at 15:30 Universal time. Analysts expect the US oil reserves to drop by 3 million barrels based on the results of the previous week.
