WTI will close for the second consecutive week lower at $96.50

• WTI is expected to finish lower for the second week in a row, with traders citing this week’s EIA stock release announcements.
• WTI is currently trading a bit lower on the day at $96.50 after almost hitting March lows on Thursday.
• Technical selling after breaking below a long-term pennant could see WTI test $90, but fundamentals are likely to be supportive.

oil prices pulled back on Friday, with first-month WTI futures poised to close a second consecutive weekend bearish, after nearly hitting March lows at $93.56 on Friday. Currently trading at $96.50, WTI is down around half a dollar on the day and just under $3.0 on the week.

Market commentators have cited EIA nations’ announcements throughout the week of plans to release crude oil reserves as a factor weighing on crude oil market sentiment. In all, 240 million barrels will be released in the coming months, which strategists say eases concerns about an acute short-term oil shortage.

That has overshadowed geopolitical developments, which have seen the EU move to extend sanctions on Russian energy imports, though it has yet to impose an outright ban on oil and gas imports. As political pressure mounts in the EU over a full embargo on energy imports from Russia, this could present an upside risk for WTI in the coming weeks.

So could the continued lack of progress in indirect negotiations between the US and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal that could free up to 1.3 million barrels a day in sanctioned oil exports, as well as OPEC+’s reluctance. to open the taps. Strategists have argued that recent stockpile release announcements make a faster pace of cartel output increase significantly less likely in the coming months.

For now, though, vendors have the upper hand, and technicalities could be playing a role. WTI broke below a key long-term pennant that had been pressuring price action earlier in the week, and some technicians took this as a sign that WTI will pull back towards support in the $90 area. Amid the ongoing risks mentioned above, an even deeper pullback seems unlikely at this stage.

Technical levels