The price of oil started to grow steadily after a day of decline on Wednesday. If yesterday the quotes were located at $84.20 per barrel, then today's trading starts at $85.92 per barrel. Prices were supported by the widespread weakening of the US dollar – the dollar index on Thursday decreased by 0.25%, to 103.66 points. Yesterday, the asset was pressured by data from the US Department of Energy: according to the report, oil reserves in the country jumped by 16.28 million barrels last week. Gasoline inventories decreased by 2.32 million barrels, distillates – by 1.28 million barrels. Analysts predicted an increase in oil reserves by 2 million barrels, gasoline – by 1.5 million barrels, distillates – by 1 million barrels. At the same time, the Ministry of Energy clarified that the statistics on reserves include an upward adjustment of 1.967 million barrels per day, or about 14 million barrels for the whole week. Experts explain that such an adjustment was the result of a previous underestimation of imports and production, as well as a revaluation of exports and refinery productivity. The monthly report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) also had an additional impact on the oil market. The agency raised its forecast for oil demand growth by 94 thousand b/d in 2023. Thus, analysts have increased the demand estimate in 2022 compared to the previous report by 107 thousand b/d – to 99.96 million b/d, and the forecast for 2023 has been increased by 202 thousand b/d – to a record 101.92 million b/d. Thus, this year the IEA expects an increase in oil demand in the world by 1.96 million b/d against 1.87 million b/d a month earlier.
