(New York) Oil prices fell further on Thursday, still weighed down by fears of a recession, which would suffocate demand, but constraints on supply persist, despite calls from US President Joe Biden to producers and refiners.
Updated yesterday at 4:59 p.m.
A barrel of Brent North Sea oil, for August delivery, fell 1.51%, to close at $110.05.
As for the barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also due in August, it lost 1.80%, to 104.27 dollars.
“The market is worried about the statements (by the president of the American central bank Jerome) Powell and fears of falling into recession, which would weigh on demand”, explained Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates.
The head of the US Federal Reserve, who was heard Thursday by the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, repeated that his priority remained the fight against inflation. “We’re going to need proof that she’s really coming down before we can declare ‘mission accomplished’,” said Jerome Powell.
For Edward Moya, of Oanda, operators have also been reinforced in the idea that a strong economic slowdown is at work by several bad indicators, in particular the PMI economic activity indices in the euro zone and in the United States. .
For him, these figures “confirm that the contraction of demand is at work”.
Rarely, plagued by technical issues, the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) has announced that it will not release weekly U.S. oil inventory and demand figures this week. , which would have provided information on the level of current consumption.
On Wednesday, oil industry federation API reported a rise of 5.6 million barrels last week, a surprise as analysts had been expecting a drop of around 1.5 million barrels, which would signal a decline. Americans’ appetite for petroleum products.
On the supply side, the Biden government’s Energy Minister, Jennifer Granholm, met with key leaders in the refining sector on Thursday to discuss ways to increase their capacity with the goal of driving down the price of oil. essence.
The API reported a “constructive” meeting, but which ended without any concrete announcement. According to a press release from the Department of Energy, Ms.me Granholm “made it clear that the government considers it imperative” to increase the supply of refined products, especially gasoline.
In addition, according to several media, Joe Biden’s proposal to temporarily lift the federal tax on gasoline and diesel did not have sufficient support to be adopted in Congress, a mandatory step.
On the natural gas market, Thursday again underlined the contrast between an American market where supply is overabundant due to the shutdown of a major gas terminal in Texas, and Europe, under strong pressure because dependent on Russian gas.
The main US futures contract fell 9%, while the benchmark European TTF contract gained more than 3%.
Germany activated Thursday the “alert level” of its emergency plan to guarantee its gas supply.
The German authorities had already announced that they would use, to meet the country’s energy needs, so-called “reserve” coal-fired power stations.
On Thursday, the benchmark European coal contract, Rotterdam’s API2, rose 1.3% to $350 a tonne, the highest since early March.