(London) Oil prices were once again weighed down on Wednesday by inflation and fears of a recession that could affect demand, when natural gas progressed in a measured way despite the interruption of Russian gas deliveries.
Posted at 7:28
Around 5:35 a.m., a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for October delivery lost 3.44% to 95.49 dollars.
A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery fell 2.91% to $88.97, slipping below $90 a barrel.
Inflation in the euro zone broke a new record in August, at 9.1% over one year, Eurostat announced on Wednesday, raising fears for the strength of demand for black gold.
The day before, “the assumption of a general weakening of demand had also led to another volatile session for oil, which came under pressure”, explained Richard Hunter, analyst at Interactive Investor.
The fall in prices accelerated on “fears that global oil demand will be hit by major central banks raising rates to fight inflation and economies sliding into recession”, Stephen said. Brennock, analyst at PVM Energy.
The drop comes a week after oil prices were rocked by statements by Saudi Energy Minister Abdelaziz bin Salman, suggesting that OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, could reduce its production to deal with volatility.
This news had boosted prices for several sessions.
“Like an abandoned ship at sea, the oil market fails to maintain a stable course,” summarized Stephen Brennock.
The market now awaits the publication in the day of the state of US oil inventories by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).
Analysts are expecting a drop of 950,000 barrels in commercial crude reserves and a million barrels for gasoline, according to the median of a consensus compiled by Bloomberg.
On the natural gas market, the Dutch TTF, the benchmark for the European market, was at 272,700 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), up slightly, but far from its recent peak since the start of the war in Ukraine, reached last week. .
As reported by Russian giant Gazprom, Russian gas flow effectively fell to zero via Nord Stream 1 in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The interruption must last three days.
However, Europe managed to fill its gas reserves faster than expected, giving prices some respite.
“Europe’s overall storage levels are satisfactory, reaching an average of 80% filling, which was the objective of the 1er November,” notes Wei Xiong of Rystad Energy.
The analyst notes that at the same time last year, European gas reserves were only 66% full, while the cost was significantly lower.
“The risk for Europe’s winter supply remains, however”, nuances the analyst, given the low deliveries from Russia, and the Old Continent could be confronted “with competition from Asian importers at the approach of Winter “.