(New York) Oil prices rebounded on Thursday after two difficult sessions, boosted by opportunity buying and the shutdown of a pipeline in the eastern United States, although traders remain pessimistic about demand. black gold.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March nibbled 1.09%, to close at 78.69 dollars.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with maturity in February, gained 1.13%, to 73.67 dollars.
“It’s just a technical rebound, after the losses of the first days of the year,” commented Andrew Lebow of Commodity Research Group.
On Tuesday and Wednesday sessions, the WTI had thus fallen by more than 9% and approached a low of more than a year.
For the analyst, the courses also benefited from the shutdown of an oil pipeline operated by the company Colonial Pipeline and which ensures the transport of refined products from Greensboro (North Carolina) to Linden (New Jersey).
The decision was taken after the discovery of a leak near Danville (Virginia). The operator said it plans to return the facility to service on Saturday.
The market paid relatively little heed to the weekly report from the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), with numbers “scattering a bit all over the place”, according to Mizuho’s Robert Yawger.
Among the surprises, the fall in the utilization rate of refineries, which fell to 79.6%, the lowest in almost 22 months, against 92.0% the previous week.
According to the analyst, this stall is explained by the passage of the winter storm Elliott, at the end of December, in the United States. The climatic event had caused disruptions in several refineries, particularly in Texas.
The EIA’s weekly report on Thursday also showed a sharp slump in demand for refined products, which fell 20%.
This reflux is especially noticeable for gasoline (-19%) and distilled products (-28%), which include diesel, but also heating oil.
While the drop in gasoline and diesel consumption comes in a context of weak demand, it is partly attributable to the winter storm, which limited travel in many American states.
The release sparked “a healthy dose of both supply and demand skepticism,” according to Andrew Lebow, and brokers saw it as an anomaly, one that doesn’t reflect market fundamentals.
Operators also did not react to Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a 36-hour unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine.
A definitive cessation of hostilities would augur an increase in Russian oil exports, which could lower prices even further, anticipates Robert Yawger.
For Andrew Lebow, despite Thursday’s rebound, “the direction of the market remains bearish”, amid the resurgence of COVID-19 in China and the prospect of a Federal Reserve ready to weigh down the American economy to curb inflation.
Robert Yawger sees the market testing again the threshold of 70 dollars per barrel for WTI, a threshold below which it has not fallen for more than a year.