Brent trades at $68.63 after rising to highs since March

On Thursday, benchmark oil prices declined after rising to highs since March a day earlier amid optimistic demand forecasts for the second half of 2021 and data on declining fuel inventories in the United States, Interfax reports.

The cost of July futures for Brent oil at the London ICE Futures exchange by 8:25 a.m. Kyiv time on Thursday amounted to $68.63 per barrel, which is $0.69 (1%) below the price at the close of the previous session. As a result of trading on Wednesday, these contracts increased by $0.77 (1.1%) to $69.32 per barrel.

The price of June futures for WTI at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time amounted to $65.38 per barrel, which is $0.7 (1.06%) below the final value of the previous session. The day before the cost of these contracts increased by $0.8 (1.2%) to $66.08 per barrel.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global oil consumption in 2021 will decrease by 5.4 million barrels per day (bpd). This is 270 million bpd lower than in the agency's previous report.

Forecasts for Europe and America were revised downward by 320 thousand bpd and 515 thousand bpd, respectively, in the first quarter of 2021, the intensification of the COVID-19 pandemic in India forced the IEA to reduce its demand in the second quarter by 630 thousand. bpd. However, the outlook for the second half of the year remains roughly unchanged, based on expectations that vaccination campaigns will continue to expand and the pandemic is largely under control.

OPEC previously retained an estimate of global liquid hydrocarbon consumption in 2020 and a forecast for 2021 compared to its previous monthly report. As stated in a fresh report published on Tuesday, in 2020, oil demand fell by 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2019 – to 90.5 million bpd, and in 2021 it was like is expected to grow by 6 million bpd to 96.5 million bpd.

Market focus also remains on news regarding the Colonial Pipeline Co. pipeline system, which is the main source of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel supplies to the US East Coast.

Colonial Pipeline, which was forced to suspend operations, last Friday due to a hacker attack, announced a gradual relaunch of the pipeline.

As reported, OPEC+ completed a deal to cut oil production by 114% in April.

Tags: oil, USA, jet fuel, coronavirus, OPEC+, petroleum products, oil deliveries, gasoline, quarantine, oil pipeline, oil reserves, COVID‑19 vaccine

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