Oil prices fell for a third day early on Thursday as concerns about demand amid surging Delta COVID-19 variant continue to weigh on market sentiment.
Before the weekly EIA inventory report, Brent Crude was trading down by 1.60 per cent at $71.25 while WTI Crude was down below $70 per barrel again, after dipping briefly below that mark on Tuesday. WTI Crude traded at $69.09, down 2.08 per cent. Soaring COVID cases with the fast-spreading Delta variant were front and center in the oil market yesterday, trumping geopolitical tensions with incidents with oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Further weighing on oil prices early on yesterday was the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) estimate from Tuesday of a smaller-than-expected draw in crude oil inventories of 879,000 barrels for the week ending July 30.
“The American Petroleum Institute reported a sizeable and higher-than-expected drawdown in US gasoline inventories for the week ended July 30, but the impact on sentiment was offset by a modest and below-expected drop in crude stocks,” Vanda Insights said in a note early on Wednesday.
The API also estimated that Cushing inventories rose by 659,000 barrels last week. If the EIA confirms today a rise at Cushing stocks, it would be the first rise in crude inventories at the WTI delivery hub in eight weeks.
– Agency Report