London (awp/afp) – Oil prices recovered on Thursday, driven by the drop in crude stocks in the United States last week but also by the slim hopes of a truce between Israel and Hamas.
Around 09:40 GMT (11:40 CET), the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in July rose 0.53% to $84.02.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery in June, gained 0.58% to $79.45.
“Oil prices managed to regain some ground after the publication of the weekly report from the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) on the state of oil stocks” in the United States, comments Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI AM.
During the seven days ending May 3, U.S. commercial oil reserves fell by 1.4 million barrels after rising by 7.3 million barrels the previous week, according to the EIA statement released Wednesday.
“This drop contrasts with the increase (of around 500,000 barrels) reported Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute” (API), the federation of professionals in the sector whose data is deemed less reliable, notes Mr. Innes.
The day before, prices which were moving in the red recovered after the publication of the report.
“The impressive recovery was also helped by increasingly slim hopes of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as the former intensifies its assault on Rafah,” notes Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Energy .
The United States is threatening for the first time to stop arms transfers to Israel in the event of a major offensive in the crowded town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
It is the harshest warning from the United States, a close ally of Israel and its main arms supplier, regarding the conduct of its war triggered on October 7 by a bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil.
“Nevertheless, it appears that developments around Israel and the Red Sea are unlikely to have a significant impact on oil supply,” says Varga.
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