Baghdad/Nina/ Oil prices fell by about 3 percent, to record a weekly decline, affected by fears of further raising interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, which may affect demand, in addition to indications of abundant supplies.
Brent crude futures fell 2.37 dollars, or 2.8 percent, to 82.77 dollars a barrel during their recent trading, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.07 dollars, or 2.6 percent, to 76.42 dollars. Both benchmarks recorded a weekly decline of more than 4 percent.
The prospect of strong demand from the world’s largest importer will be another bullish factor for the oil market, which is already receiving support from Western sanctions on Russian exports, according to Archyde.com.
The latest data on US supplies, on Wednesday, showed that crude inventories in the week ending February 10 rose by 16.3 million barrels to 471.4 million barrels, the highest level since June 2021.
Some support came from moves this week by the International Energy Agency and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries “OPEC” to raise their expectations for the growth of global demand for oil this year, as they attributed this to expectations of an increase in Chinese demand.
In addition, analysts expected that China would import record quantities of crude oil in 2023, supported by the growth in demand for fuel, after the increase in movement and travel, following the abolition of anti-Covid-19 restrictions and the operation of new refineries./ End 8
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