On Tuesday, the West Texas Intermediate oil futures reduced, as the market participants are preparing for the publication of fresh weekly data on stocks of crude oil and petroleum products in the United States, to gauge the demand of the world’s largest consumer.
During the European morning, the WTI oil prices for June delivery fell 58 cents, or 1.03%, getting to 56.41 $ for a barrel. Yesterday you could notice the same negative trend for crude oil prices.
The American Petroleum Institute plans to publish its report on stocks today. Also the government data, which is expected on Wednesday, may show the increase of oil stocks for the week which ends April 24, by 1.4 million barrels. The total crude oil inventories in the US on the last week amounted to 489.0 million barrels, reaching a record high in 80 years.
The US crude oil futures rose in April by 15% based on renewed expectations that the extraction of shale oil in the US has reached its peak and the decline may begin in the coming months. Now, when the analytics stay positive about the oil supplies, the prices go down.
In addition to the fact that the experts and analytics foresee the further increase of US oil provision, there is one more factor that influences the oil prices trend of the present time. It is about the Saudi Arabia, which has promised to sell China as much oil as needed. The Arabian representatives declared on Monday their intention to maintain the market share. In particular, the oil minister Ali Al-Naimi has promised to increase the supply of oil to China. He declared in Beijing that: “Sudden changes in oil prices are not welcome, so it is in our common interest to ensure the price stability”. “The fair and stable oil prices will be an advantage of both producers and consumers of fuel, as well as will ensure a steady growth of global supply and demand for oil” was another declaration of the Arabian oil minister. The idea is that even if the decline of oil prices since June has helped Asian developing prices, it caused difficulties for many oil producers. There was stated that Saudi Arabia will add in April approximately 10 million barrels of oil per day, which is close to the historic maximum.
Also, the June oil prices of Brent in London went down with 0.78 $, or -0.69%, getting to 64.05 $.