The price of texas intermediate oil (WTI) lost 2.6% on Tuesday and closed at 102.41 dollars a barrel, dragged down by fears that the confinements in China and the Western sanctions against Russia have a greater than expected impact on demand.
According to data at the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in June lost 2.76 dollars compared to the previous close.
Natural gas contracts due in June, the new benchmark month, rose 47 cents to $7.95.
During morning trading on Wall Street, natural gas rose 9% to $8.14 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), its highest level since 2008.
Campbell Faulkner, vice president and chief data analyst at OTC Global Holdings, said in a quote picked up by CNBC that today’s rise is due to a “surge of tighter market conditions,” such as the outlook for the European Union to include Russian crude in a new round of sanctions against Moscow.
On Monday, at an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers in the European Unionthe governments of Germany and Austria, until now reluctant to sanction Russian oil, have expressed their willingness to adopt a new package of sanctions that includes crude from Moscow, leaving Hungary as the only country that still rejects it.
Investors, in addition, are still pending the effects of the restrictions imposed by the Government in China to contain the new wave of covid-19 and that may affect the demand for energy.
Gasoline contracts, meanwhile, fell less than a cent to $3.50 a gallon.
