(London) Oil prices fell on Tuesday, under the effect of a deterioration in the economic context generated by monetary tightening and the rise in rates, on the eve of the decision of the American central bank (Fed).
Posted yesterday at 3:45 p.m.
The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for November delivery fell 1.50% to close at $90.62.
A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in October, which was the last day of trading, dropped 1.49% to 84.45 dollars.
“Investors are pricing in a darkening global outlook, with interest rates set to rise further this week, which should limit aggregate demand,” said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Fed, the central bank of the United States, is due to announce its monetary policy decision on Wednesday.
“Its primary objective is to contain inflation, even if this has to be done at the cost of short-term economic pain,” explains Tamas Varga of PVM Energy.
Markets expect another “aggressive” rise in interest rates, “which will cripple the outlook for crude demand in the near term,” said Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
Oil prices also suffered from a further advance in the dollar, the currency in which most oil purchases are denominated, pointed out Stephen Schork, analyst and author of the Schork Report, as well as from the slide in the stock markets. .
For him, the downward pressure on prices is also due to the month of September, the period of the year during which many refineries traditionally carry out maintenance operations.
“They are closing units and therefore buying fewer barrels,” and this situation usually lasts until the end of October, he explained.
OPEC+ (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies) fell short of its August target, producing 3.583 million barrels per day below the announced target, according to an internal document cited by the Reuters agency.
This is enough to remind “once again the markets of the difficult conditions in which we continue to operate”, and to put concerns about supply back in the spotlight, underlines Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda.
But for Mr Moya, a drop in crude prices could offer the alliance a “good reason to cut production after the decisions of central banks this week”. What to start again from the prices to the rise.
On the natural gas market, the Dutch TTF futures contract, the benchmark for the European market, traded at 199.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), up 9.45%.