The fall in crude continues.
The barrel of Brent brushed the symbolic threshold of 70 dollars on Monday, which it had not reached since December 2021. The world benchmark for black gold remained below 73 dollars in the afternoon.
Its American equivalent, the WTI, also hit its lowest level since December 2021, at $64.10.
"The rescue of Credit Suisse has failed to calm concerns about a banking crisis
," summed up the observers.
And this crisis is keeping investors away from risky assets such as commodities.
On Sunday, the first Swiss banking group UBS agreed to buy for a pittance its rival in great difficulty, Credit Suisse, with important guarantees from the authorities of Bern.
Read also UBS bank buys its rival Credit Suisse in distress
However, says Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Energy,
"it would be absurd to believe that the financial turbulence is the only factor behind"
the drop in crude prices.
"The world oil market is currently well supplied, even in surplus"
, he recalls.
He points to a double imbalance.
On the one hand, demand from China, the world's largest crude importer, has not yet recovered significantly.
On the other hand, Russian oil production is holding up unexpectedly.
The Russian oil giant Rosneft has also announced a net profit of 813 billion rubles (9.8 billion euros) in 2022, down only 7.9% compared to 2021, despite Western sanctions and the drop in European imports.
As for natural gas, the European price slipped below 40 euros per megawatt hour on Monday, its lowest since July 2021, hampered by mild weather and high storage levels.
"Inventories are still close to season's record highs and 20% above normal levels
," summed up DNB analysts.