(New York) Oil prices confirmed their upward trend on Monday, in a market now accustomed to the idea of a global economic slowdown and which has refocused on the problem of supply, which is still insufficient.
Updated yesterday at 4:07 p.m.
The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for August delivery climbed 1.74%, to close at $115.09.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery the same month, took him 1.81%, to 109.57 dollars.
For Daniel Ghali of TD Securities, the market is emerging from a streak in which “recession fears have been the catalyst for massive selling in recent weeks.”
During this period, he said, many investors who had positioned themselves higher to accompany the soaring prices so far exited the market, “which pushed the consolidation too far” and caused prices to fall too low at the time. look at the fundamentals.
On Wednesday, the WTI had approached the 100 dollar mark, below which it has not fallen for a month and a half.
“So the market is ready for a rebound,” argued Daniel Ghali, who refers to the lag between the recent plunge in oil and the maintenance of gasoline and diesel prices at historically high levels.
“We digested bad news last week (about the state of the economy), but in the end, it does not seem that a solution is near for Ukraine and that does not bode well for prices in the near future,” added Stephen Schork, analyst and author of the Schork Report.
The rise in black gold prices was also fueled on Monday by several news concerning the offer, in particular the announcement of the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC), which warned that it could declare the state of ” force majeure” on the facilities in the Gulf of Sirte, the blockage of which is linked to the political crisis that has hit the country for months.
“Few additional capacities”
This would result in a suspension of its overseas delivery commitments.
Separately, Nigeria’s Petroleum Resources Minister, Timipre Sylva, said on Monday that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their OPEC+ allies had “very little additional capacity”.
According to Daniel Ghali, the market expects no surprises from the OPEC + meeting on Thursday, which should lead to a new increase of 648,000 barrels per day in August, identical to that decreed for July.
The operators gave little credit to the G7 project to put in place a mechanism to cap the price of Russian oil at the global level. The leaders of the most industrialized countries in the world have so far been rather sparing of details on the modalities of this system.
“The only countries that are really trading with the Russians right now are the Chinese and the Indians, and they haven’t committed to anything,” Schork commented. Neither China nor India are members of the G7.
Mr. Schork also recalled that Russian oil had already been the subject of massive discounts since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, in order to be able to sell a crude that many have turned away from because of the sanctions and the risk of reputation.