Oil prices continue to rise in the course of trading, investors are evaluating data on changes in fuel inventories in the US.
July futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose by $1.25 (1.1%) by 14:56 Moscow time to $114.81 per barrel.
The cost of futures for WTI for July at the electronic session of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) has increased by this time by $1.41 (1.28%) – up to $111.18 per barrel.
As shown by data published the night before by the American Petroleum Institute (API), oil inventories in the United States for the week ended May 20 increased by 567,000 barrels, while experts predicted an average increase of 690,000 barrels.
Official data from the US Department of Energy on energy reserves will be made public on Wednesday at 17:30 Moscow time. Analysts polled by Trading Economics expect the report to indicate a decline in oil inventories by 737 thousand barrels, gasoline – by 634 thousand barrels.
The focus of traders is still the ongoing discussion by the European Union on the introduction of a ban on the import of Russian oil. Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban considers it counterproductive to discuss the embargo at the level of EU leaders, since there is no consensus on these measures yet.
At the same time, President of the European Council Charles Michel expressed confidence that the countries of the community would be able to reach a compromise even before the summit scheduled for May 30-31. “I’m still confident that we will be able to solve this problem before the Council of the EU, it will require dialogue, a lot of political effort, and we are working very hard to maintain unity and also to make decisions,” Michel said. at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersen on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the day before that the administration of President Joe Biden does not exclude the introduction of restrictions on energy exports in order to contain sharply jumped fuel prices in the country.