Oil: an overview of the market situation

Prices for WTI crude oil rose slightly, after a government report showed that the amount of oil reserves in the U.S. fell more than expected, and the demand for gasoline has decreased. As for the cost of oil brand Brent, its price has dropped significantly, showing a loss of $ 1.

According to the report from the Energy Information Administration, following a seven-day period that ended on July 12, crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell by 6,902 million barrels to 367.016 million barrels level. It is worth noting that according to the average forecasts of experts, the reserves had to be down only by 1.9 million barrels, after a decline of 9.9 million over the previous seven days.

The data also showed that due to lower gasoline consumption by 570,000 barrels per day, or 6.1% - to 8.73 million barrels per day (the biggest drop since January 7, 2005), gasoline stocks increased by 3.055 million barrels - up 224.083 million barrels. At the same time, it became known that the U.S. distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.87 million barrels - up to 127.679 million barrels and refinery utilization in the United States amounted to 92.8% against 92.4% previous week

We also recall that yesterday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude oil reserves fell by 2.6 million barrels, gasoline inventories rose by 2.553 million barrels, distillate stocks rose by 3.821 million barrels and refinery capacity utilization rose from 92.1% to 92.5%.

Also, the dynamics of today's trading was influenced speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said that the pace of bond purchases was not on course. Meanwhile, he reiterated that the Fed could start reducing monthly purchases of bonds by the end of this year.

The cost of the August futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to 106.15 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

August futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture fell to $ 108.47 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.