ALBAWABA – Oil prices picked up slightly on Monday to $74.56 and $70.45 per barrel of Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crudes, respectively, according to Reuters.
Oil prices finally stabilised after four consecutive weeks of decline, Bloomberg reported.
Both Reuters and CNBC reported a slight decline in oil prices earlier today, Monday, before rising to the posted levels, due to conflicting buyer sentiments, CNBC highlighted.
Despite product cuts by OPEC+ members, demand remains lower than expected.
Overall, oil is down 12 percent, Bloomberg noted, citing fears over a possible recession in the US.
Together with concerns over the ongoing US debt ceiling crisis, the New York-based financial news outlet explained that these factors outweigh OPEC+’s production cuts.
Nonetheless, bullish sentiment springing from supply reductions and the possibility of the US resuming the purchase of oil for reserves seem to have bolstered oil prices for now, Bloomberg underlined.
The U.S. could start repurchasing oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve project in the next few months, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last Thursday.
These four weeks of decline are the longest streak of weekly declines since September 2022.
Demand for physical barrels appears weak, as reported by Bloomberg, while refinery margins remain low but are recovering.
Refinery margins are the profits that refiners make from processing crude into petroleum products like diesel and gasoline.
Still, global crude supplies could tighten in the second half of 2023, as OPEC+ is said to make additional output cuts soon, Reuters reported.
