Oil prices fell to a 14-month low of $71/barrel

During the week, oil quotations fell by 8.5% on expectations of a decrease in energy demand due to the deterioration of macroeconomic indicators in the USA, the EU and China. Pessimism was added by Trump's statement that, if elected US President, he would lower world oil prices to $40/barrel (by greatly increasing production in the US) in order to force the Russian Federation to conclude a peace agreement with Ukraine.

 

November Brent oil futures for the week fell by 8.5% to a 14-month low of $71/barrel (-11.3% for the month), and US WTI crude oil fell by 11.3% to $67/barrel. barrel (-11.6% for the month).

 

Gasoline prices in the US fell to a 33-month low, increasing pressure on oil prices and adding points to Democratic presidential candidate K. Harris.

 

Traders were largely unresponsive to a report by the EIA that showed U.S. crude oil inventories were 4.5% below their 5-year average as of Aug. 30, gasoline inventories were down 2.2%, and distillate inventories were down 9.5%. %.

 

Quotations were not supported by the news that OPEC+ agreed to postpone the planned increase in crude oil production by 180,000 barrels/day in October and November due to the drop in oil prices and the instability of global energy demand.

 

In addition, the market is under pressure from the possible resumption of supplies of almost 1 million barrels/day of oil from Libya, where the conflicting parties are negotiating on the distribution of revenues from oil exports.

 

Also, the oil market was negatively affected by the fall of stock indices in the USA, where during the week Dow Jones decreased by 2.8%, S&P 500 - by 4.6%, NASDAQ - increased by 5.4% against the background of another wave of collapse of too "overheated" shares of technological companies.