Oil prices drop on API data on US reserves

Global oil prices on July 8 morning show no clear dynamics after the publication of data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on the decline in US crude stocks, according to trading data, Report informs referring to Prime agency.

As of 8:49 (GMT+4), the price of September futures for Brent crude decreased by 0.01 percent to $73.42 per barrel. The cost of August futures for WTI oil fell by 0.18 percent to $72.07 per barrel.

The API earlier reported that US oil inventories for the week ended July 2 fell by almost 8 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decline of only 3.9 million.

The US Department of Energy will release official data later on July 8. The department is expected to report a decrease of 4 million barrels.

At the same time, investors are still worried about the situation around OPEC+. The meetings of the alliance on July 1 and July 2 ended in vain due to the principled position of the UAE on the terms of the extension of the deal until the end of 2022, and the third round was postponed without announcing the exact date.

“People are just wildly uncertain” what the OPEC+ stalemate means for the future of output, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. “August is in question, and the demand warrants more production.”