Yesterday at the oil trading sessions in New York and London, oil prices fell sharply. Thus, on the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London, futures quotes for Brent crude oil for the nearest delivery month fell at once by $1.73 and reached $40.64 per barrel. On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), futures for Light Sweet crude oil for the nearest delivery month became cheaper by slightly less – by $1.52 and amounted to $44.24 per barrel. On the whole, yesterday's oil trading was characterized by reduced activity and a relatively low volume of transactions. Today at the morning electronic trading session (as of 10:20 Kyiv time), February futures for Light Sweet crude oil are trading even cheaper – in the area of $44.05 per barrel – reports the market analysis department of LIGABiznesInform.
According to most experts, the main reasons for yesterday's collapse of world oil prices were: a report by the U.S. Department of Energy about a sharp increase during the past week in commercial stocks of oil and petroleum products in the country, as well as the persistence of relatively warm weather in the American Northeast and in other countries of the Northern Hemisphere.
Thus, commercial oil stocks in the U.S. grew by 2.1 million barrels over the past week and reached 295.9 million barrels. That is 7.6% higher than in the same period last year. The growth of oil stocks in the U.S. was a consequence of an increase in its imports into the U.S., primarily due to increased supplies from Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
Commercial stocks of diesel fuel and fuel oil in the U.S. increased by 600,000 barrels during the week. Considering that the volume of oil refining at American refineries decreased by 0.3% during the week, the main reason for the growth of heating oil stocks in the U.S. was the warming of the weather in the northeast of the country. Following this, yesterday fuel oil became sharply (by almost 3%) cheaper on NYMEX. Gasoline stocks in the U.S. grew by 1.8 million barrels during the week.