Oil prices fall amid an increase in US oil inventories
Global oil prices are falling amid the reports of the American Petroleum Institute (API) about a slight increase in crude inventories in the country on Wednesday.
Report informs, citing Prime, that Brent crude futures for May dropped 0.8% to $66.98 a barrel at 8:47 a.m. (GMT +4), WTI crude futures for April fell 0.66% to $63.59.
The US commercial oil inventories increased by 12.8 million barrels last week, which may be the third consecutive week of growth in reserves. A week ago a record increase of 21.6 million barrels was recorded in the history of observations.
Strengthening in the USD also has pressure on the oil prices. Expensive dollar makes oil and other raw materials less available for those purchasing them in other currency. The index of the dollar surged 0.23% to 92.17 points – the highest level since November 2020.
Oil prices have been showing a monthly growth since November 2020. As of early November, the oil price was $35-37 a barrel. Then the price rise was supported by vaccination optimism, hopes of economic recovery and restoration of demand, as well as OPEC+ efforts to cut the output.
