Brent falls to $97.9 per barrel

Oil prices accelerated the decline on August 12, Report informs citing Interfax.

By 18:53 (GMT+4), October Brent futures fell by $1.71 (1.72%) on the London ICE Futures exchange to $97.89 per barrel. September futures for WTI were cheaper on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by $2.04 (2.16%), to $92.3 per barrel.

Both brands have risen in price since the beginning of the week after falling by about 9% a week earlier. A positive factor for the oil market included the strong statistical data from the US, which gave investors hope that inflation in the country is slowing down, while the labor market remains strong.

The sharp slowdown in price growth, largely due to a smaller increase in fuel prices, spurred expectations that the Fed will slow down the tightening of monetary policy, wrote FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich. The irony is that oil rose due to the fact that statistical data showed the consequences of its decline in the last two months, he noted.

Goldman Sachs forecasts that gasoline and oil prices will rebound again towards the end of this year as the market still needs to balance growing demand and limited supply.

Brent futures could rise to $130 a barrel and US retail gasoline prices could return to around $5 a gallon, Damien Courvalin, director of energy research at Goldman, told Bloomberg.