Crude oil prices moved slightly higher at the beginning of Asian trading, today, Tuesday, July 18 (2023), amid investors’ aspirations for a possible announcement of an increase in US supplies.
This comes at a time when crude prices faced a noticeable decline in recent sessions, in light of the Chinese economy continuing to achieve weaker-than-expected growth, which does not bode well for the possibility of a recovery in oil demand there soon, according to a report published by Reuters, which was seen by the specialized energy platform.
At the same time, the rise in oil prices coincides with global market participants awaiting data related to US oil inventories and product inventories during the past week, which are expected to appear later today, Tuesday.
Oil prices today
By 7:00 am GMT (10:00 am Mecca time), the futures prices for Brent crude, for delivery in September 2023, increased by 10 cents, or 0.9%, to record $ 78.60 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude, for August 2023 delivery, rose 14 cents, or 0.12%, to record $74.29 a barrel, according to figures monitored by the specialized energy platform.
And oil prices fell at the end of trading yesterday, Monday, July 17 (2023), as Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell by more than 2%, amid expectations of a decrease in US oil stocks.
It is noteworthy that 4 analysts had expected that US crude oil inventories would decline, by about 2.3 million barrels, during the week ending on July 14, at the average level, according to a poll conducted by Reuters.
Oil price analysis
John Rong Yap, a market analyst at IG in Singapore, said that the lackluster GDP data released by China on Monday caused the cautious lid to remain on oil prices, with some reservations about the demand recovery.
“However, there has been some momentum from buyers recently, as prices have broken out of the near term flat pattern over the past week, which could indicate some exhaustion in selling pressures, after the pessimism of the past year,” he added.
At the same time, US shale oil production is expected to decline to approximately 9.40 million barrels per day in August, the first monthly drop since December 2022, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed.
Despite this, global supplies may see a boost from the resumption of production at the El Feel and El Sharara oil fields in Libya, which were shut down last week. Production was halted due to protests over the kidnapping of a former minister.
It is noteworthy that China had announced yesterday, Monday, July 17, economic data that indicated that the gross domestic product grew by 6.3% on an annual basis during the second quarter of this year 2023, which is lower than analysts’ expectations of 7.3%, according to information I have seen. specialized power platform.
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