Oil fumbled after a new low in more than six years of WTI – Romandie.com

London (awp / afp) – Oil prices were hesitant Friday late European trade in a wait-market after the fall of WTI to its lowest level in session almost six and a half, weighed down by an excess of offer.

Towards 1600 GMT (1800 CET), the price of Brent North Sea for September delivery, which is the last trading day, was worth 48.95 dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) London, down 27 cents from Thursday’s close.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), a barrel of “light sweet crude” (WTI) for the same maturity nibbled 17 cents to 42.40 dollars. The price per barrel of WTI fell early Friday Asian trading to 41.35 dollars, a new lowest since early March 2009.

“While Brent has managed to hold on to his small gain, WTI continued its descent and reached a new low in six and a half years in momentum, “noted Ole Hansen, analyst at Saxo Bank.

For the analyst, this overall weakness in the oil markets is always linked to the organization’s production policy of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which continues to increase its offer, and the resistance facing US shale oil at low prices.

In this context, the market will be every Friday monitor the count of active drilling wells in the United States, established by the Baker Hughes services group.

According to analysts, WTI is currently suffering the most as the American Brent crude benchmark is particularly affected by seasonal factors.

The end of the season of the great summer car journeys approach and the latter had supported the recent months oil demand in the US (the biggest oil consumer in the world) because American refineries produce gasoline and other petroleum products at full speed.

In addition, pressure on the WTI was accentuated by “the unexpected shutdown of a refinery for repairs in the Midwest region (north-central United States)”, work to last about a month and removing a refining capacity of 240,000 barrels a day in the United States, noted analysts at Commerzbank.

“This means that the reserves (US) of crude could be enlarged by 1.7 million barrels by one week therefore decreasing weekly inventory could be much less than in recent weeks, “they warned.

bur-hp / jmi / nas

(AWP / 08.14.2015 6:15 p.m. )

(AWP / 08.14.2015 18:15) ->