Crude oil prices continued to decline in mid-European trading today, Wednesday, August 13, in decline for nine of the last ten sessions, supported by increased optimism surrounding the meeting between the US and Russian presidents on Friday to end the Russian-American war, as well as the Energy Information Administration’s report, which raised its supply forecasts amid anticipation of today’s official inventory report. Nymex crude rose by about 0.13% to trade at $70.09 a barrel, while Brent crude traded at $73.31 a barrel, up about 0.10%.
The US Energy Information Administration report issued yesterday, Tuesday, showed a rise in inventories of 1.25 thousand barrels in the past week ending August 8, compared to expectations of a decline of one million barrels. In detail, gasoline inventories decreased by about 1.78 million barrels, while distillate inventories, which include heating fuel and diesel, increased by about 295 thousand barrels. Today, markets are awaiting official inventory figures from the US Energy Information Administration, amid expectations of a 300,000 barrel decline in inventories last week.

Conversely, OPEC maintained its forecast for global oil demand growth this year at 1.3 million barrels, while raising the forecast to 1.4 million barrels next year, an increase of 100,000 barrels compared to previous estimates.

The US Energy Information Administration, in its monthly report, indicated that Brent crude oil could fall below $61 per barrel in the fourth quarter of this year, recording its lowest quarterly level since 2020. The agency expects that global supply growth, which exceeds oil demand, will pressure oil prices in the coming period.

The agency expects global oil supply to rise by 2.5 million barrels this year, compared to a previous estimate of 2.1 million barrels, while it expects oil demand to rise by 680,000 barrels, up from 700,000 barrels previously.