On Thursday, oil price began falling after a jump to the highs logged in March. Yesterday's euphoria could be explained by positive predictions about oil demand in the second half of the year and the US macroeconomic data.
Early today, Brent future for July delivery lost 1% to trade at $68.64 per barrel compared to the level it closed at on Wednesday. Yesterday, Brent futures advanced by 1.1% to $69.32 per barrel.
At the same time, WTI futures for June delivery dropped by 1.06% to settle at $65.38 per barrel. On Wednesday, the asset rose by 1.2% to $66.08 per barrel.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees that in 2021, global oil consumption will decline by 5.4 million barrels a day. This is 270 million barrels per day lower than in the previous report.
Notably, earlier, OPEC remained unchanged its estimate of the global oil consumption for the previous and current years compared to its latest monthly report. The recent document reads that in 2021, oil demand will grow by 6 million barrels a day to 96.5 million barrels a day.
Last week, commercial oil reserves in the US slid by 426 thousand barrels, whereas gasoline reserves advanced by 378 thousand barrels. Commercial reserves of distillates dropped by 1.73 million barrels.
Commodity market participants are still focused on the news about Colonial Pipeline Co., the largest pipeline system, which is the main source of supply of gasoline as well as diesel and jet fuel to the east coast of America.
The company had to suspend its work because of a hacker attack. Later, it announced that it would gradually resume the pipeline operation. According to the company's representatives, the supply chain will return to normal by the end of the week.
