(New York) Oil prices ended in decline on Tuesday, driven by the sharp decline in refined products, while American refineries are ramping up with the start of spring.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May lost 0.57%, to close at $86.25.
A barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) of the same maturity lost 0.40%, to $81.62.
“The market is clearly led by refined products today,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.
The wholesale price of American gasoline thus fell by 1.78% during the session.
“This may be linked to the restarting of refineries in the United States after a maintenance period,” said Andy Lipow.
The utilization rate of American refineries has increased over the last four weeks, but still remains below its level of the last two years at the same time.
The BP refinery in Whiting (Indiana), the sixth largest site in the United States with 440,000 barrels processed per day, was only fully returned to service last week, six weeks after a massive power outage.
The petroleum products market was also subject to some profit taking.
On Monday, the wholesale price of U.S. gasoline hit a nearly eight-month high, up more than 26% since mid-December.
Andy Lipow recalls that many speculative operators had positioned themselves upwards in recent weeks and decided to hedge by selling gasoline, which caused prices to drop.
In Europe, the benchmark diesel contract dropped 1.92%.
For Andy Lipow, the fact that the level of American stocks is “adequate” for diesel, slightly higher than last year at the same stage, helps to calm the market.
Operators expect the US Energy Information Administration to report on Wednesday an increase of one million barrels in reserves of distillate products, a category which includes diesel, last week.
These elements more than offset concerns linked to Russian production reduced by Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries in the west of the country, which had driven up prices on Monday.