Oil prices continued to climb on Wednesday, hitting their highest levels since late February, the day after Saudi Arabia announced a major cut in its black gold production while the rest of OPEC + did will increase its only marginally over the next few months.
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At around 10:35 GMT (11:35 in Paris), a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March gained 1.58% in London from Tuesday's close to $ 54.50, shortly after touching 54.63 dollars, a price more seen since February 26, 2020. The US barrel of WTI for the month of February climbed 1.08% to 50.47 dollars after reaching its highest since February 25 at 50.59 dollars.
“Oil prices are rebounding after the
unexpected results of the OPEC + meeting,
”
observed Carlo Alberto De Casa, analyst at Activtrades.
After two days of discussions, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their partners finally reached a compromise on Tuesday, allowing only Russia and Kazakhstan to slightly increase their gold production. black during the first trimester.
The volume voluntarily withdrawn from the market since spring 2020 by this so-called Opep + alliance will increase from 7.2 million barrels per day (mbd) in January to 7.125 mbd in February and then 7.05 mbd in March, announced the cartel at the conclusion of their first ministerial summit in 2021.
But "
the real surprise was the announcement by Saudi Arabia of a voluntary reduction of one million barrels per day which will be implemented over the next two months
", added the Activtrades analyst, enough to make the markets “
enthusiastic
”.
"
Rather than being taken for what it is - a sign of weakening demand - the Saudi surprise has made oil prices soar,
" said Stephen Brennock of PVM.
The prices of the two benchmark contracts have already appreciated by nearly 5% on Tuesday.
The increase was also fueled by data released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the federation that brings together professionals in the petroleum sector in the United States.
She estimated that crude stocks had fallen by 1.7 million barrels last week in the country, a positive signal for demand for black gold.
The US Energy Information Agency (EIA), estimates deemed more reliable, will publish its figures later today.
According to the median of analysts polled by the Bloomberg agency, the decline should be even more important, of the order of 2.7 million barrels.