(New York) Oil prices fell on Friday as profits took after a week that saw prices recover, helped by good inflation news.
The price of a barrel of Brent North Sea oil for September delivery fell 1.83% to close at $79.87.
As for the barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with maturity in August, fell 1.91%, to 75.42 dollars.
“We are entitled to profit taking, because prices have gone up by several dollars in the last two weeks,” commented Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates.
The WTI thus took more than 15% in two weeks, before a peak, Thursday, at 77.33 dollars.
For Andy Lipow, the consolidation movement is also the result of questions raised by the gap between the updated forecasts of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). .
The IEA has revised down, for the first time, its estimate of oil demand growth for the current year, to 2.2 million barrels per day against 2.4 previously, while OPEC has it raised its projection to 2.4 million, from 2.3 so far.
For 2024, the increase in oil demand scheduled by OPEC is even double that forecast by the IEA, at 2.2 million barrels per day against 1.1.
Faced with these discrepancies, the market is hesitant, according to Andy Lipow, “and will wait to make sure that Saudi Arabia and Russia do reduce their production significantly”.
Saudi Arabia has promised to cut its volumes by a million barrels a day in July and August, while Russia has committed to 500,000 barrels for the next month.
According to the OPEC monthly report, the total production of the 13 OPEC member countries increased slightly in June.
Overall, the market remains bullish, according to Ryan McKay of TD Securities, who said “the tide is turning in the energy market.”
EIA and OPEC agree that both this year and 2024 supply will be less than demand.
