The price of Texas intermediate oils (WTI) fell 1.02% on Friday, reaching $77.88 a barrel, but closed its fourth consecutive week of gains after the great boost experienced by the US and British sanctions on the Russian oil sector a week ago.
At the close of yesterday’s session, Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchangethe futures contracts of the American crude oil for delivery in February they lost 80 cents compared to the previous day.
WTI prices still gained more than 1% during the week due to the upward momentum registered after the aforementioned sanctions against Russia, which seek to reduce its income and hinder its offensive in the war with Ukraineand that continued to put upward pressure on the market.
He American crude oil It also made notable progress because the level of its reserves fell last week to its lowest point since April 2022, as exports increased and imports decreased, the US Energy Information Administration reported two days ago. . (EIA).
In this context, the WTI It rose 3.3% on Wednesday to $80.04 a barrel, its highest level since July 26.
Additionally, analysts expect that demand for oil grow by 1.4 million bpd year-on-year in the coming weeks, driven by increased travel in India, where the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival (the largest human gathering in the world) is taking place, as well as travel for the celebrations of the Lunar New Year in China at the end of January.
International panorama
- Traders are also evaluating new data from Chinathe largest importer of oil in the world, whose economy grew by 5% in 2024, meeting its Government’s forecasts.
On the other hand, on Monday the act of taking possession of donald trump for his second term, so, according to analysts, the market awaits the new measures of the incoming Administration.
Regarding the agreement of cease-fire announced on Wednesday between Hamas and Israel, which still must be endorsed in another meeting of the Israeli Executive, did not have a great impact on the market because, although it represents a de-escalation of the conflict, there is distrust about how long it could last.
