The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) fell 1.8% this Wednesday and closed at 109.78 dollarsone day before the OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, announces whether it will go ahead with its plan to add 648,000 barrels of crude oil per day to its entire oil supply in August.
(Continued rapprochement between the US and Venezuela on energy issues).
At the end of trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in August lost $1.98 from the previous close. Meanwhile, black gold fell below the $110 barrier, thus breaking three consecutive sessions on the rise.
In the market, the 23 OPEC+ countries are expected to certify the aforementioned increase in productionas they agreed on June 2 under growing Western pressure to open more taps in order to curb rising energy prices and inflation.
(Ecopetrol increases LPG gas production).
On the eve of tomorrow’s telematic meeting, the ministers of the thirteen partners of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) closed a videoconference on Wednesday without adopting any decision regarding its pumping. The current agreement between OPEC and its ten allied countries, including Russia, provides that joint production, after rising by 648,000 barrels per day in August, will total 43,306 million barrels per day (md) and will then remain unchanged until the end of year.
In theory, OPEC+ (without Venezuela, Iran and Libya, which do not participate in the agreement) would thus end up recovering the level of pumping it had before reducing it in 2020 by almost 10 mbd to face the historical collapse in demand and the prices of the “black gold” that caused the coronavirus crisis. But since most producers face serious technical difficulties in extracting what they have set out to do, Skepticism reigns among analysts that OPEC+ can deliver on its promises.
BRENT OIL
The price of a barrel of Brent oil for delivery in August ended this Wednesday in the London futures market at 116.12 dollars, 1.58% less than at the end of the previous session. North Sea crude, a benchmark in Europe, ended the day on the International Exchange Futures down $1.87 from the last trade, when it closed at $117.99.
The price of Brent put an end to the bullish streak that had started last Friday and closed lower for the first time in three sessions. Fears about the evolution of the global economy and the demand for crude once again offset the problems that the level of supply is going through after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
GAS AND PETROL
Meanwhile, the price of July natural gas futures contracts fell 7 cents to $6.49, and gasoline futures due the same month fell 10 cents to $3.82 a gallon.
EFE
