(New York) Oil prices fell Wednesday to their lowest in almost two weeks, prices suffering from the strength of the dollar and still fears of a draw from the United States in their strategic reserves.
The price of a barrel of North Sea Brent for January delivery fell $ 2.15 or 2.60% to $ 80.28.
In New York City, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the month of December lost $ 2.40 or 2.97% to $ 78.36.
An unexpected decline in US crude inventories last week of 2.1 million barrels, while analysts were betting on a rise of 1.2 million, did not put a smile on the face of the price that had started in the red.
A good sign for demand in the United States, gasoline reserves have also declined, to the extent of analysts’ expectations, falling by 700,000 barrels.
“It was a constructive report with a drop in stocks across all products,” said Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates, based in Houston (Texas).
But this decline in stocks is a double-edged sword for the markets, which fear that it will cause prices to rise further and push the Biden administration a little more to seek to cede strategic reserves in the market to lower prices. .
“Lower than expected reserves could push Washington to open its strategic crude reserves,” commented Ricardo Evangelista, analyst at ActivTrades.
According to the South China Morning quoted by Bloomberg News, Washington would have asked Beijing to also release part of its crude reserves, during the virtual summit Tuesday between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.
For Andy Lipow, prices were more affected Wednesday by the strength of the dollar which was maintained around its highest in 16 months.
“The trend has more to do with the strengthening of the dollar which puts pressure on crude prices and with recent comments from OPEC which sees demand decline in the first quarter of 2022,” the analyst said.
“The stronger dollar has had a negative impact on the mood of US markets in recent sessions,” he added.
According to him, a drain on US strategic reserves to lower prices would be “a one-off response to have fun and lower these prices, but in reality, global demand is growing faster than the will and capacity of OPEC. to be produced ”, creating tension on prices.
Since July 2020, some 47 million barrels have been gradually drawn from the strategic reserves of the United States and put on the market without however managing to tame the rise in prices, the analyst also noted.
President Joe Biden, who promises to do everything in his power to control inflation, which peaked in 30 years in October year-on-year, also announced Wednesday that he was asking competition authorities for an investigation into the hikes. gasoline prices and oil companies.