(London) Oil prices fell on Thursday, the day after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+) announced on a new modest opening of the floodgates, and an employment indicator disappointing American.
Posted at 7:39
After the surge of the last few days, around 6 a.m., the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in April lost 1.45% to 88.17 dollars, and in New York, that of WTI for delivery in March yielded 1.55% to 86.89 dollars.
The twenty-three members of the OPEC+ alliance decided on Wednesday to keep the cautious pace of increasing their total production level by 400,000 barrels per day for the month of March.
“OPEC’s slowness is not just a question of willpower,” assures Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote Bank. “Major oil producers are already struggling to ramp up production to meet the 400,000 barrel per day increase. »
“Oil prices first rose in response to the OPEC+ meeting”, then “prices came down somewhat”, comments Carsten Fritsch, the market reacting to US employment figures deemed disappointing.
The private sector in the United States destroyed jobs in January (301,000), for the first time since December 2020, hit hard by the Omicron wave, according to the monthly survey by business services company ADP published on Wednesday .
Added to this is a lack of staff due to COVID-19 contamination, preventing many companies from operating properly, and raising fears of a drop in economic activity and therefore in demand for hydrocarbons.
The unexpected decline in commercial crude oil reserves in the United States “did not arouse enthusiasm either,” notes Tamas Varga of PVM Energy.
However, although “this morning’s prices have corrected slightly lower, there is no sign of a change in the underlying sentiment”, warns Mr Varga, geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe East and Middle East still leaving threats hanging over oil supply.
Oil prices are still trading at very high levels, with the two oil benchmarks remaining close to their highs in more than seven years.