Oil falls 4% due to demand concerns after US gasoline ‎inventories rise

Oil prices fell by more than 4% today, Wednesday, after a larger-than-expected rise in US gasoline inventories raised concerns in the markets about the volume of demand and its impact overshadowed the impact of the decline in crude inventories.

WTI crude futures contracts decline 4.07% ($2.94) and record at settlement $69.38 per barrel. Brent crude futures contracts decline 3.77% ($2.9) and record at settlement $74.30 per barrel.

According to Reuters, the US Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline inventories in the United States rose by 5.4 million barrels last week, a number five times greater than the increase of one million barrels that analysts had expected.

Crude inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels, far exceeding analysts’ expectations of a decline of 1.4 million barrels.

Both benchmarks closed on Tuesday at the lowest level since July 6 in the previous session, and US crude fell for four consecutive days.

The OPEC+ group, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia, agreed late last week on voluntary production cuts of about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024. Saudi and Russian officials said this week that the cuts may be extended or It increases after March

Concerns about the health of the Chinese economy also affected prices, a day after Moody’s credit rating agency lowered its outlook for China’s A1 rating from stable to negative.

A decline in exports in the United States caused a widening trade deficit in October, which may weigh on economic growth in the fourth quarter.