Oil under pressure after the release of the new inventory report. Brent fell by 1.3% to $ 119.5 a barrel, while WTI fell by 1.1% to $ 117.6. According to reports from the EIA (Energy Information Administration), weekly oil inventories in the United States increased by about 2 million barrels on a weekly basis, compared to the 1.5 million decline expected by analysts and +0.74 million. of the API data. On the other hand, gasoline inventories decreased by approximately 0.7 million barrels compared to the +0.2 million expected by analysts (-2.16 million the Api figure), while the stocks of distillates increased by 0.73 million compared to the +0.17 million forecast by analysts (+0.23 million the Api figure). Strategic oil reserves fell by 7.7 million to 511.6 million barrels per day.
After starting 2022 with a large spare capacity, the OPEC + cartel is reaching its production limits. The result is that existing oil inventories will likely decline for the third consecutive year, following a precipitous decline in global crude oil and refined product inventories over the past 18 months (as we see from the graph above). For the time being, Western governments have mitigated the impact of dwindling supplies by releasing the largest number of barrels ever from their strategic oil reserves; but without further actions capable of supporting the market, the situation could worsen.