On Wednesday, Brent oil fell below $ 70 per barrel. This followed the White House's call for OPEC to increase production in order to combat rising gasoline prices.
United States President Joe Biden's administration said that OPEC+ should do more to accelerate the global economic recovery. Following this, the White House called on the international organization and its allies to increase production of black gold. It said the group's July agreement to boost production by 400,000 barrels per day on a monthly basis beginning in August and stretching into 2022 is "simply not enough".
In addition, the Biden administration is also calling on the Federal Trade Commission to "monitor the U.S. gasoline market" and "address any illegal conduct that might be contributing to price increases for consumers at the pump."
Amid the effective statement of the White House, oil futures fell sharply. Brent lost 1.05% to $69.89 per barrel, West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.16% to $67.5 per barrel.
Another serious downward factor for the global black gold market was the introduction of new travel restrictions by the authorities in Beijing. The guaranteed consequence of such a step by the Chinese leadership will be a decrease in fuel demand in one of the largest oil-consuming states in the world. The day before, commodity markets analysts lowered the oil demand forecast for China by 1 million bpd for the next two months.
According to US internal statistics, oil-product stockpiles fell significantly last week. At the same time, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) increased its forecast for fuel demand this year and reported higher-than-expected consumption levels in May and July.
Such positive EIA demand forecasts for 2021 helped support oil prices and reduce concerns about the deterioration of the short-term prospects of the black gold market.
