Oil prices slightly up

LAST UPDATE: 5:30 p.m

Oil prices are now moving slightly higher, having erased morning losses, amid countervailing forces with fears of a slowdown in fuel demand as interest rate hikes continue, while supply remains extremely tight.

In particular, the global benchmark, oil Brent for September deliveryup slightly by $1.01, or 1%, to $104.16 a barrel.

The most active contract, which has become the Brent for October deliveryalso moving up 0.8% to $99.2 a barrel.

At the same time, American crude type West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose $1.16, or 1.22%, to $95.86 a barrel.

“Oil prices are under pressure on concerns that aggressive interest rate hikes by the US central bank will slow the global economy and reduce demand for the fuel,” said the chief executive of Emori Fund Management.

“The sluggish recovery of the Chinese economy is also affecting market sentiment,” he adds.

However, oil futures have been highly volatile in recent weeks as traders try to weigh the possibility of future interest rate hikes, which could lead to a recession and therefore curb demand for the fuel, compared to the limited supply due to the sanctions in Russia and the unstable situation in Libya.

Natural gas on the rise in Europe

At the same time, European natural gas prices rose for a fourth day as uncertainty remained over the volumes that would continue to flow through the Russian-German Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

In particular, the August natural gas contract in Amsterdam (TTF) is moving with an increase of approx 5.3% and its price to be configured to at 168.5 euros per megawatt hourwhile the high of the day had been found up to 170 euros.

Although flows to Germany have started for days at 40% of the pipeline’s capacity, following the end of scheduled maintenance that ended on July 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that volumes could drop to as much as 20 %, if a turbine that is expected to arrive in Russia does not replace another one that will need repair.

The critical spare part remains in Germany and did not leave by ship for Helsinki on Saturday due to bureaucratic procedures, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

If the exchange of documents takes place, the transfer can take place within the next few days. The turbine had been in Canada for some time for maintenance and was then “blocked” due to sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine.

With no confidence in Russia and continued flows, the European Union is trying to save as much gas as possible ahead of winter by calling on all its member states to cut consumption, regardless of how dependent each individual member state is on Russian supplies. supplies.

“Putin hinted that if the turbine was not back by this week, flows could drop to 20% of capacity, although the component was not expected to be used before September,” Deutsche Bank AG said in a note. “So, a lot of attention to the political games with natural gas.”

Germany’s warehouses are 65.9% full and under normal conditions the figure is expected to reach 75% on September 1.