Oil quotes slowed down after the release of official statistics on changes in fuel stocks in the US.
July futures for Brent on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose by $0.17 (0.15%) to $113.73 per barrel by 18:29 Moscow time.
The cost of futures for WTI for July at the session of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by $0.1 (0.09%) by this time – up to $109.87 per barrel.
US commercial oil inventories fell by 1.02 million barrels last week to 419.8 million barrels, according to a weekly report from the country’s Energy Department.
Commodity stocks of gasoline decreased by 482 thousand barrels and amounted to 219.71 million barrels.
Commercial distillate inventories increased by 1.66 million barrels to 106.92 million barrels.
Experts expected a decrease in oil inventories by 2.13 million barrels, a decrease in gasoline inventories by 1.64 million barrels and an increase in distillate inventories by 1 million 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.