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Oil prices fell during trading today, Wednesday, for the third session in a row, amid a wave of selling, as investors sold crude to take profits..
Brent crude fell by 0.9 percent to $66.89 per barrel, by 07:21 GMT, while the price of US West Texas Intermediate crude reached $63.47 per barrel, down by 0.8 percent..
Prices received support last week from OPEC+’s decision to maintain production cuts next April, largely as they are. Then prices jumped on Monday, as Brent rose above $70 a barrel, after attacks launched by the Houthis on the heart of the Saudi oil industry, before falling as tensions subsided..
“It is a realization that there is no impact of the attack on supplies,” Virendra Chauhan, an analyst at Energy Aspects, a consultancy in Singapore, said of the decline in prices.
He added that a combination of factors, including the fact that two major importers, India and China, are withdrawing crude from stocks in light of the current high prices, and expectations of the return of Iranian supplies, have calmed prices..
In the United States, crude inventories rose by 12.8 million barrels in the week ending March 5, according to trade sources based on data from the American Petroleum Institute. Analysts had expected an increase of about 800,000 barrels.
Source: Reuters