Oil prices are falling on Wednesday on the back of data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which showed a significant increase in US stockpiles.
The cost of May futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 7:10 a.m. was $85.54 per barrel, which is $0.71 (0.82%) lower than at the close of the previous trading. On Tuesday, these contracts fell by $0.5 (0.6%) to $86.25 per barrel.
May futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by $0.61 (0.75%) to $81.01 per barrel by this time. As a result of previous trading, the value of these contracts decreased by $0.33 (0.4%) to $81.62 per barrel.
According to API estimates, US oil inventories increased by 9.337 million barrels in the week ended March 22, the highest increase since mid-February 2023.
Oil inventories at the Cushing terminal, where Nymex-traded crude is stored, increased by 2.4 million barrels, API reported.
Official data on energy reserves in the US will be released by the Department of Energy at 16:30 pm.
The oil market continues to monitor the geopolitical situation and awaits news from OPEC+.
The coalition states, which will hold a regular meeting on April 3, are likely to maintain the current production restrictions. According to Bloomberg, citing sources, the OPEC+ countries do not yet see the need to change production volumes.
