Oil prices rise, Brent has exceeded $ 57 per barrel

Prices for “black gold” benchmark marks continue to rise during today’s trading on data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which showed a more significant than expected reduction in US inventories.

As of 8:20 Moscow time, March futures for the North Sea oil mixture Brent rose by $ 0.7 to $ 57.28 per barrel, February futures for the West Texas WTI grade – by $ 0.57 to $ 53.78 per barrel, reports “Finmarket».

According to Vladislav Antonov, an analyst at the IAC Alpari, on Tuesday “by the end of the day, Brent crude oil increased by 1.98% to $ 56.70 per barrel”. “The rally in oil continued on expectations of falling stocks in the US, tightening supply, as well as a weakening of the US dollar in the global currency market,” the expert said in his review.

He states that, “according to the latest data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), in the week before January 15, oil reserves fell by 5.821 million barrels (the forecast was minus 2.3 million barrels).” “Gasoline stocks increased by 1.876 million barrels, distillate stocks – by 4.433 million barrels. Oil reserves fell more than forecast. The official report of the US Department of Energy will be released today. Oil reserves are expected to decline by 2.266 million barrels, ”Antonov said.

In his opinion, “buyers have headed for the $ 60 per barrel mark, although their key target is at $ 65 per barrel”. “Considering the general mood of market participants towards the US dollar, buyers are not threatened by anything on the way to the psychologically important level of $ 60 per barrel,” the analyst is sure.

Let us also recall that at the end of the first quarter of 2020, several waves of falling prices for “black gold” swept across the world oil market. The negative situation was caused by a whole complex of factors: a general overproduction of raw materials, a sharp drop in demand amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus infection COVID-19 (a pandemic was announced on March 11) and concerns about its impact on the global economy, as well as the collapse of the OPEC + deal (officially from April 1, but in fact after fruitless negotiations between the oil producing countries at a meeting on March 6 in Vienna).

However, on April 12, the OPEC + countries agreed on a new deal, in which 23 states became participants. The agreement is designed for 2 years – from May 1, 2020 to May 1, 2022. The new OPEC + deal was a forced reaction of the oil-producing countries to the market situation and pressure from the United States. However, in general, it did not cover the volume of the decline in global demand, and besides, huge reserves of raw materials have accumulated on the market.

During 2020, the OPEC + countries held meetings, adjusting the parameters of the transaction taking into account the situation on the world oil market.

On January 4-5, 2021, the ministers of the OPEC + countries made a compromise decision, according to which, starting from February, Saudi Arabia will voluntarily reduce oil production by almost 1 million barrels per day within two months, to about 8.125 million barrels per day, and a few more OPEC member countries will cut production by two months by a total of 425 thousand barrels per day. At the same time, Russia and Kazakhstan received the opportunity to increase production in February and March.