The price of oil has fallen about 2 percent

Oil futures fell, move caused by the publication of a controversial report on US petroleum inventories. At the same time, a further fall in prices restrained by the overall weakness of the US dollar.

US Department of Energy reported that in the week ended Sept. 9 oil inventories unexpectedly declined, but gasoline inventories rose slightly. According to the report, oil inventories fell by 559,000 barrels to 510.8 million barrels vs the average forecas of +4 million barrels. Oil reserves in the terminal Cushing (Oklahoma) fell by 1.2 million barrels to 62.2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks rose by 567,000 barrels to 228.4 million barrels. Analysts had expected an increase of 600,000 barrels. Distillate stocks rose 4.6 million barrels to 162.8 million barrels. Analysts had forecast an increase of 1.4 million barrels. The utilization of refining capacity decreased by 0.8% to 92.9%, while analysts expected a decline of 0.5%. Meanwhile, oil production in the US rose to 8.493 million barrels per day versus 8.458 million barrels per day in the previous week. US consumption of oil fell by 0.2 million barrels per day to 16.73 million barrels per day.

In general, data from the Ministry of Energy of the United States in contrast with yesterday's report from the American Petroleum Institute, which showed that the oil reserves in the country for the previous week rose 1.4 million barrels, which was much better than forecasts. Distillate stocks rose by 5.3 million barrels, while gasoline stocks fell by 2.4 million barrels.

In addition, traders continue to assess the likelihood that major oil producers will be able to agree to freeze production to support the market. OPEC members are expected to discuss a possible agreement on the limitation of oil production at an informal summit to be held in Algiers on 26-28 September. Earlier this year, an attempt to freeze the level of co-production failed due to the refuzal of Saudi Arabia to sign the agreement without the participation of Iran.

The cost of the October futures for US light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) fell to 44.00 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

October futures price for North Sea petroleum mix of mark Brent fell to 46.22 dollars a barrel on the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures Europe.