Oil prices are rising on Thursday after falling by more than 4% in the previous session.
The price of July futures on Brent on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $72.9 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Thursday, up $0.57 (0.79%) from the previous session’s close. Those contracts fell $2.99 (4%) to $72.33 a barrel on Wednesday, the lowest since December 20, 2021.
The price of futures for June WTI crude oil on the electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by that time by $0.34 (0.5%) – to $68.94 a barrel. At the end of the previous session, contracts fell $3.06 (4.3%) to $68.6 a barrel, the lowest since March 20.
The oil market has fallen sharply since the beginning of this week on signals of slow economic recovery in China, as well as increased fears of recession in the U.S. due to problems in the banking sector of the country.
“The correlation between tensions in the U.S. banking sector and falling oil prices cannot be denied,” said Price Futures Group chief analyst Phil Flynn, cited by Market Watch.
U.S. Department of Energy data published on Wednesday showed a decline of 1.28 million barrels of commercial oil inventories in the country for the week ended April 28. The decline marked the third week in a row.
Experts polled by S&P Global Commodity Insights expected on average a sharper reduction of 3.3 million barrels.
Stocks at Cushing terminal, which stores oil traded at Nymex, increased by 500,000 barrels, while stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) decreased by 2 million barrels.
According to the DOE report, gasoline inventories in the States rose by 1.74 million barrels last week, while distillates fell by 1.19 million barrels.
