Oil prices slipped on Tuesday during the Asian session ahead of the release of the US oil inventory data.
Today the American Petroleum Institute will publish data on stocks of crude oil and refined petroleum products for last week. On Wednesday, there will be the official data from the US Department of Energy, for which investors generally pay more attention.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude oil futures for March delivery fell $ 1.44 to $ 32.91% per barrel. Brent crude fell 1.38% to $ 34.21 per barrel.
During the night the oil futures lost some of the Monday achievements, when they rose 6%, after the International Energy Agency in its latest report predicted a sharp decline in US oil production volumes in 2016 and 2017.
On the Intercontinental Exchange, Brent futures for April delivery ranged in price between $ 32.84 and $ 34.97 per barrel and the closing cost was $ 34.74, gaining 1.73 (5.24%) per session and ending the three-day fall. Since falling below $ 30 a barrel in mid-February, Brent rose in price by more than 13%.
At the same time the price difference between the American and international benchmark grade is $ 1.35, slightly above $ 1.28, which is Friday's closing level. On Monday, investors reacted to bullish opinion of the International Energy Agency which predicted that the volume of US oil production will continue to decline, as prices continue at record lows.
In its "review of the oil market in the medium term," the IEA said that the volume of oil production by low-permeability reservoirs (shale oil) in the US will fall by 600 000 barrels per day this year and another 200 000 in 2017, after which the balance in markets will begin to recover. However, the IEA expects that by 2021 the US will become the world leader in increasing the volume of production, increasing these by 1.3 million barrels per day compared with the level in 2015.
Investors are also waiting for the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi on Thursday in Houston, in the hope that he will shed light on the prospects for the first agreement in 15 years between OPEC countries and oil producers outside the cartel. Last week, Saudi Arabia and three other OPEC members tentatively agreed with Russia to freeze production volume at the January level.