New York (awp/afp) – Oil prices ended close to equilibrium on Friday, torn between the pragmatic speech of OPEC+, which reassured the market, and an American indicator which rejects the prospect of a drop in prices. interest rate.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in August fell by 0.31%, to $79.62.
A barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) maturing in July ended almost unchanged (-0.02%), at $75.53.
“It seems that there are opposing currents” in the black gold market, noted Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.
“At the start of the session, prices were supported by statements from OPEC+, ensuring that their plans to gradually reduce production cuts could be modified depending on market conditions,” explained the analyst.
The group initially indicated on Sunday that it would gradually return to voluntary reductions of 2.2 million barrels per day from October.
Several ministers from major members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies in the OPEC+ agreement have followed one another in recent days to qualify the cartel’s announcements and evoke a possible status quo if prices so require. justified.
This pragmatic message pleased operators and allowed WTI to regain more than 3% in two sessions.
But after another positive start, on Friday, the market was frozen by the monthly report from the US Department of Labor, according to which some 272,000 jobs were created in May in the United States.
The figure is well above the 180,000 expected, and the 165,000 in April.
“This report suggests that rate cuts by the Fed (the American central bank) are still a distant dream,” responded Wells Fargo analysts in a note.
High rates for longer “would have an impact on oil demand and prices,” recalls Andy Lipow.
For the analyst, prices could return to the tight margins that constrained the market before the OPEC+ communication.
Barbara Lambrecht of Commerzbank believes that prices could continue to recover if updated forecasts from the International Energy Agency (IEA), OPEC and the US Energy Information Agency Energy (EIA), expected next week, insist that supply should be lower than demand for crude in the second half.
For the analyst, the market “overreacted” to OPEC+’s communication.
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