At the auctions in London the price of Brent crude oil fell below $53 a barrel, setting a record fall during the day from the beginning of the year.
Wednesday, March 8, the trading session began at $55,62 per barrel in the second half of the day the price began to plummet, reaching a minimum of $52,94 per barrel. Last time at this level, Brent oil was traded in early December of 2016.
As of 22:47 GMT the may Brent futures in London traded at $53,02 per barrel. The fall rate of the day at this point amounted to 5.19%, which was also a record since the beginning of 2017.
At auction in new York the price of WTI crude oil also dropped to levels seen in mid-December. As of 23:00 Moscow time per barrel WTI traders gave $from 50.36. The fall in prices during the day at this point amounted to 5.25 percent.
The fall in oil prices, according to Bloomberg, began after the publication of government data that production cuts by OPEC countries and States joined them was not sufficient to reduce the supply of oil to the United States. While petroleum reserve reached a record level in 528,40 million barrels of commercial oil reserves for the week rose from 24 February to 3 March by 8.22 million barrels, writes the WSJ. These figures far exceeded the expectations of analysts, who had expected growth of 1.7 million barrels.
On the same day made a statement the head of the French company Total Patrick Puyang plans to invest in ten major projects around the world, reports RIA Novosti. “Today I can announce that we have a strategy, which includes 10 projects in the next 18 months in different countries of the world,” he said.
In addition, according to Puyang, a new wave of the shale revolution in the U.S. will be a key factor for the oil market in the near future. “The situation with mining in the United States, as you know, they want to return to coal mining is an effective mining will be a key factor for the market in the near future,” he said at an oil conference CERAWeek.
Oil prices rose after the November 2016 agreement was reached on stabilizing the oil market. Then the country — members of OPEC agreed to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels. per day from January 2017. Arrangements have also been joined by several countries outside the organization, including Russia. They have committed themselves to reduce production by 558 thousand barrels. a day.
High oil prices had reached 3 January 2017, then for a barrel of Brent on the London stock exchange gave $of 58.37.
