Oil prices in the USA higher and raw materials stocks lowest since late February 2021

West Texas Intermediate oil barrel in deliveries for June at the NYMEX fuel exchange in New York City is valued at $65.81, higher by 0.27%.

Oil Brent in deliveries for July at the ICE Futures Europe fuel exchange in London costs US$69.20 per barrel, higher by 0.35%.

Official data from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) show that oil stocks in the US fell by 7.99 million barrels last week, i.e. by 1.6% to 485.1 million barrels.

This is the lowest level since the end of February 2021 and a signal that fuel consumption in the US has improved strongly.

In the meantime, investors are assessing the effects of an uneven recovery of global fuel demand when one country sees an acceleration of growth in the economy, including the US, China and the European countries, and others, like India, face a record wave of coronavirus pandemic, which severely reduces oil demand.

Wave The Covid-19 epidemic in India has intensified rapidly since the beginning of April, and the country currently has more than 350,000 new diseases every day. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's state energy company – Saudi Aramco – lowered its oil prices for June for Asia by 10-30 cents per barrel.

The key oil price for Asian countries – Arab Light – was lowered to US$1.70 per barrel against the benchmark for May $1.80.

"India is a cause for concern for the oil market, especially if it comes to a national lockdown," says Warren Patterson, Head of Freight Strategy at ING Groep.

Analysts of Bloomberg Intelligence estimate that oil prices are threatened with correction due to the health crisis in India and higher oil supply from OPEC+ countries.

Since July OPEC+ is expected to increase oil supply by about 2 million barrels a day.

Source: PAP