(New York) Oil prices snagged a third consecutive rise on Friday, on a worsening gas crisis in Europe and fears of the approaching fall in the Northern Hemisphere in an energy context. degraded.
Posted at 4:36 p.m.
The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for October delivery climbed 0.13% to close at $96.72.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in September, gained 0.29%, to 90.77 dollars.
Prices fluctuated throughout the session, with WTI dropping as high as 2.34% before recovering, ending in the green.
The market thus continued its rebound after the WTI fell on Tuesday to its lowest level for almost 7 months, ie before the invasion of Ukraine.
For Matt Smith, Kpler analyst, prices were notably supported by the announcement of the temporary suspension of gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline by the Russian giant Gazprom, from August 31 to September 2, officially for maintenance.
Nord Stream 1 had already been shut down for maintenance for ten days in July. Since its recommissioning, Gazprom has limited deliveries to a fraction of the pipeline’s maximum capacity.
On Friday, the price of the Dutch TTF futures contract, the benchmark for the European gas market, reached a new closing high, at 257.40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
“As prices go up, refiners and power plants will turn to refined products” to run their facilities, when possible, “because it’s so much cheaper than buying natural gas” , which will weigh on the prices of oil and its derivatives, explained Matt Smith.
Another factor favorable to the price of black gold, the rise in diesel and fuel oil prices, as the cold season approaches in the United States, according to the analyst. In 10 days, fuel oil has increased by 20%, while diesel has taken 19%.
US inventories of distillates, which include diesel and fuel oil, are 18% below their level at this time last year.
Operators remained wary of an Iranian nuclear deal, four days after Tehran told the European Union of its reservations about the final text submitted by the EU.
“The Iranians don’t just want a deal, they want to humiliate the United States,” said Bill O’Grady of Confluence Investment, which lessens the likelihood of a compromise.
“We don’t believe in a deal,” Matt Smith explained.