AUTONEWS

Oil still dying

Oil reserves in the United States reached a new record for the second consecutive week, according to the report by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) released on Wednesday, which reduced the price of black gold by more than 5%.
Last week, commercial oil reserves increased 1.4 million barrels (mb) in the United States to 540.5 mb, an increase close to that expected by analysts.
After the report was released, the price of the reference barrels fell by more than 5% in the markets and remained with a drop of this magnitude until closing.
Thus, the barrel of WTI for delivery in August lost 5.8% compared to Tuesday's close at $ 38.01. And the North Sea Brent barrel, also for delivery in August, closed at $ 40.31 in London, down 5.4%.

Weak demand
This new increase in reserves, for the third consecutive year, is a new factor of concern in a market affected by weak demand and the impact on fuel consumption of the coronavirus pandemic.
The increase in reserves "shows that the oversupply situation in the United States has not yet been resolved," said Jasper Lawler of LCG.
However, at the terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma, where giant storage sectors are located, reserves - which are a reference to the WTI cited in New York - fell by one million barrels.
On the other hand, gasoline reserves fell 1.7 million barrels, according to analysts' expectations.
"Demand for gasoline is increasing, although we can't count on the numbers for just a week," said Andrew Lebow of the Commodity Research Group.
"This is the result of the reopening of many companies in the country" amid distrust, explained the expert.
Meanwhile, stocks of distilled products, such as heating fuel and aviation fuel, grew by 249,000 barrels.
Energy demand in the United States has increased compared to the previous week, with an average consumption of 17.1 mb per day (mbd) for the past four weeks. The number is still 17% lower than that recorded at the same time last year.
North American production increased for the first time since mid-March to 11 mbd, 500,000 barrels more than in the last weekly report.
According to Lebow, last week's figures in this section were particularly low due to the closing of oil wells when the tropical storm Cristobal approached the Gulf of Mexico.
This week there was a readjustment of that data, he said. Refineries operated at 74.6% of capacity, a small increase from the previous week.
Imports fell to 6.54 mbd from 6.64 mbd the week before. And exports increased from 2.46 mbd to 3.16 mbd.

AFP