Global oil prices experienced a real roller-coaster ride on Thursday. In the middle of the trading session, the price first rose to a 3-year high above $86 per barrel and then started to decline rapidly due to profit taking from the two-day price rally.
Thus, investors, who had set the $86/bbl as their selling threshold, reacted instantly and took immediate profits. As a result, oil quotations have fallen significantly in value.
December Brent crude futures lost 0.75% to settle at $85.18 a barrel. Meanwhile, the price of WTI crude fell by 0.48% and balances at $83.02. At the opening of Thursday's trading session, oil was down 0.2% and 0.01% respectively.
In the previous two trading days, the global price of oil had risen by 1.7%, while during the current month, Brent and WTI crude were up 8% and 10% respectively.
Experts cite tight supply and a global gas shortage as the main reason for Thursday's short-term boost on the oil market.
Refineries around the world are actively increasing output to meet strong demand from Europe, the US, and Asia. However, analysts anticipate that plants maintenance and the permanently rising cost of natural gas will significantly curb supply in Q4.
According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, the country's commercial oil inventories slumped by more than 400,000 barrels to 426.5 million barrels over the past week. At the same time, commodity market experts had expected an increase of 1.9 million barrels.
