Crude Oil Futures

  The oil price is falling and the pattern of fall on a given day remains puzzling, though. In the past few days it was as if the crude oil price followed the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky! In the early hours of the day when the markets in the Asia open, the price picks up only to fall again as the day wears on. They mystery deepens when the investors’ screens go green in the very region that is most affected by the Delta variant of the Coronavirus nowadays. Of course, they turn red too, when the markets in the rest of the world open. In short, the price fluctuations just defy the logic: the uncertainties in the markets are many – and rising; the viability of US stimulus package is widely debated among the decision makers; the Chinese economy has hit the buffers; there are renewed fear of Middle East plunging into turmoil, yet again; the Delta variant is spreading fast across the globe and lockdowns are imminent in many parts of the world. The main worry for the

  The price of crude oil was substantially down on Thursday with WTI and Brent hitting as low as 67.27 and 66.11 respectively as of 17:30 GMT. Both benchmarks lost over 3.3% in a day. The outbreaks of the Delta variant of the Coronavirus, coupled with weak economic data from China, have resulted in the fall, which has been continuing for the week. The speculation about the end of the US stimulus package, meanwhile, has added yet another dimension to the collective anxiety of both the investors and traders alike. In the current circumstances, analysts are not in a position to predict the short-term progress – or decline - in the sector either. The Arabic media, meanwhile, says a tanker with Iranian oil is going to crisis-hit Lebanon, citing an declaration from the leader of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon. Since Iran is still under US-led sanctions, how – and when - it will reach Lebanon is anybody’s guess. Since the attack on the Israel-registered tank

  With the news of a modest crude inventory draw, announced by the API, American Petroleum Institute, the price of crude oil recovered slightly from the losses it suffered on Tuesday. As of 09:00 GMT, the price of WTI and Brent stood at $66.89 and $69.43 respectively. The forecast by the analysts for the week ending 17 August was 1.259 barrels. The API, however, came up with a figure that was lower than the forecast – just 1.163 million barrels. Judging by the recent figures, it is difficult to spot a correlation between the actual API values and the forecasts by the analysts; it is even harder to find a statistical relationship between the two – if any. The US crude inventory data by the EIA, US Energy Information Administration, meanwhile, is expected today for the same period. The crude oil markets were rattled to the core when China admitted that its economy has slowed down, which in turn affected its crude oil imports. The outbreaks of the new Delta variant of the Corona

  The price of crude oil has been falling with no sign of the trend being reversed, although the rate of fall remains modest. Throughout the past three weeks, analysts were wondering as to why the price of crude oil started falling despite the geopolitical risks that had the potential to disrupt the supply, especially in the Gulf of Oman. This week, however, things started emerging that shed light on the unexpected development, in the end. The main reason behind the falling crude oil price is the slower than expected growth in China that in turn affects the use of crude oil in the country; China is the world’s top crude oil importer and second only to the US, when it comes to oil consumption. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in July, the imported crude oil was 41.24 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 19.6 percent ; from January to July, imported crude oil was 301.83 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6 percent. The fall in demand of crude