(London) Oil prices fell on Tuesday on concerns about supply disruptions due to the passage of the storm Beryl in the United States having eased.
At around 6 a.m. (Eastern time) (12 p.m. in Paris), the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent crude for delivery in September fell 0.43% to $83.38.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in August, fell by 0.51% to 81.91 dollars.
After crossing the Caribbean, the storm Beryl hit Texas on Monday, bringing heavy rains that caused flooding and massive power outages, and killed at least five people in the southern United States.
Despite this, “oil prices fell slightly on Tuesday after the passage of Beryl in the Gulf of Mexico,” the storm “causing less damage than expected” to the oil infrastructure present in large numbers in Texas, comments Ricardo Evangelista, analyst at ActivTrades.
“With the region’s energy infrastructure largely unaffected by the storm, fears of an impact on oil supplies have dissipated,” he continued.
Finally, Beryl should “have little or no impact on US oil markets,” says Matt Britzman of Hargreaves Lansdown.
“This reminds us that the world is changing and that extreme weather events are becoming an increasingly important factor for investors to consider,” he said.
The market is also awaiting the publication of US inflation data for June this week.
“A low figure, confirming several recent publications indicating a slowdown in the US economy, would increase the chances of an interest rate cut as early as September,” explains Ricardo Evangelista.
Enough to weigh on the greenback and also support demand for oil, and therefore prices.
Since oil prices are denominated in dollars, a depreciation of the American currency pushes demand for oil on the markets by increasing the purchasing power of investors using foreign currencies.