Oil on Thursday continues to go up

Investing.com – Oil prices resumed their climb to the close of the session in the US on Wednesday and Thursday continued on the back of a decline in US inventories and new fears related to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the Korean peninsula, Dow Jones writes.

Both oil brands update their highs since the fall of 2014, while the spread between them continues to increase, signaling high demand in Europe and Asia.

The quotation of July futures for Brent crude at the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures to 8:12 Moscow time on May 17 rose by $ 0.08 (0.10%) – to $ 79.36 per barrel.

WTI oil for June delivery in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $ 0.22 (0.31%) on Thursday morning, to $ 71.71 per barrel.

On Wednesday, the price of Brent increased by $ 0.85 (1.1%), to $ 79.28 per barrel, WTI – by $ 0.18 (0.3%), to $ 71.49 per barrel.

According to the US Department of Energy, oil reserves in the country for the week ended May 11 fell by 1.4 million barrels, to 432.4 million barrels. Forecasts of analysts polled by S & P Global Platts, suggested a decrease in oil reserves by 2.3 million barrels.

According to the Ministry of Energy, gasoline reserves in the US fell by 3.79 million barrels, while distillates fell by 92,000 barrels.

Oil production in the US increased by 20 thousand barrels per day (b/d), to 10.723 million b/d.

The lower price of WTI compared to European and Middle Eastern benchmarks contributed to the growth of oil exports from the US to a record last week – 2.566 million b/d vs. 1.877 million b/d.

According to Tom Kloza, an analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, the contribution of exports to the reduction in oil reserves was 18 million barrels.

The market continues to wait for the presidential elections in Venezuela this weekend. According to CNBC, US authorities can impose sanctions on Venezuela, if they consider that the election was falsified.