Oil: an overview of the market situation

The price of oil rose moderately today , which was associated with the release of data on stocks in the U.S. and expectations of tomorrow's ECB meeting

The Energy Information Administration U.S. (EIA) reported that commercial U.S. crude inventories last week fell by 3,431 thousand barrels - up to 389,523 million barrels. Gasoline inventories rose by 210 thousand barrels and reached 211,785 million barrels.

Commercial distillate stocks rose for 2012 thousand barrels , reaching 118,093 million barrels. Experts polled by Bloomberg, expected a decrease of oil reserves by 250 thousand barrels , gasoline inventories increase by 400 thousand barrels and distillate stocks increase by 900 thousand barrels. Oil stocks at Cushing , Oklahoma, fell by 321 thousand barrels - up to 21.37 million barrels. We also learned that the capacity utilization rate rose to refining 90.8% against 89.9 % a week earlier .

Recall that yesterday's data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed :

- Distillate stocks in the U.S. last week -0.3 million barrels

- Gasoline inventories in the U.S. last week 0.8 million barrels

- Crude oil inventories in the U.S. last week -1.4 million barrels

Traders also paid attention to the U.S. data , which showed that the index of business activity in the U.S. service sector in May 2014 rose to 56.3 from 55.2 the previous month . Experts forecast a rise to 55.6 index points. Subindex , which characterizes the level of employment in the U.S. service sector grew in May to 52.4 points from 51.3 points in the previous month. Podyndeks business activity rose to 62.1 points from 60.9 points.

Prices are rising on the news from Libya. Today, the Libyan state news agency Lana reported that many foreign oil companies evacuate staff from the country in connection with the fighting in the city of Benghazi . Aggravation of the situation in the country threatens new oil supply disruptions from it .

"The situation in Libya is out of control in recent weeks, and production of oil fell to their lowest levels ," - said the managing director of Petromatrix GmbH Olivier Jakob .

The cost of the July futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to $ 103.36 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

July futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture rose 29 cents to $ 109.10 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.