NEW YORK. The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) rose 3.4% yesterday to 107.82 dollars a barrel after confirming a new weekly reduction in US crude oil inventories.
According to data at the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in May added 3.58 dollars compared to the previous close.
Benchmark US crude held its rise after the US Energy Information Administration revealed a larger-than-expected 3.4 million-barrel drop in the country’s commercial stockpiles.
These reserves are at their lowest level in almost four years, despite the increase in production in the country and the release of part of the strategic reserves authorized by the White House to try to stop the rise in prices.
Texas fell hard on Tuesday at the prospect of Russia withdrawing its troops around kyiv and another city in northern Ukraine, but now skepticism prevails over what appears to be a partial withdrawal, without the bombings having stopped.
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The price of oil has risen markedly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began more than a month ago, also due to the ramifications of the economic punishment imposed by Western countries on Moscow.
OPEC and its allies, including Russia, will meet electronically today to set the level of their crude oil supply in May, and everything indicates that they will support a modest increase, previously planned, leaving aside the tensions caused by the war in Ukraine.
Elsewhere, natural gas contracts for May delivery rose 27 cents to $5.60 per thousand cubic feet, and gasoline contracts due the same month rose 11 cents to nearly $3.29 a gallon.
