Oil prices fell for the second consecutive day, driven by an increase in US inventories and indications that the OPEC+ group is unlikely to change its production policy at the upcoming technical meeting next week. Prices have declined since reaching their highest levels since October last week.
With the sharp increase in US crude inventories and expectations of possible procrastination by OPEC+ next week, and profit-taking acceleration after the mid-March surge, further “decline” in oil prices was prompted.
Market sources cited figures from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, stating that US crude oil inventories rose by 9.3 million barrels in the week ending March 22. Distillate inventories rose by 531 thousand barrels, but gasoline inventories fell by 4.4 million barrels.
Official government data will be released on Wednesday at 10:30 am Eastern Time, as stated by three OPEC+ sources to Reuters before next week’s oil review meeting. The organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Russia, are unlikely to make any changes to oil production policy before a full ministerial meeting in June.
OPEC+ agreed this month to extend production cuts by around 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of June, although Russia and Iraq were forced to make additional efforts to address overproduction. A Reuters survey showed that these difficulties cast doubt on the organization’s ability to adhere to the cuts, as OPEC exceeded its targets by 190 thousand barrels per day in February.
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Shady Fouad is a technical analyst at LDN Company
Shady's strategic vision in the currency markets is reinforced by more than fifteen years of trading experience, which enables him to blend economic and technical analyzes with high efficiency, and find the best investment ideas for traders.
