Global oil prices rise 2%

Global oil prices rose on March 17 morning after falling a day earlier in light of the release of US weekly statistics on crude stocks, reported from the auction data.

The price of May futures for Brent crude rose by 1.87% to $99.84 per barrel, April futures for WTI grew by 1.83% to $96.78.

On March 17 morning, oil prices rose after falling on March 16 by about 2%, which was partly caused by data on the growth of oil inventories in the US - for the first time in three weeks.

Thus, commercial oil reserves in the US (excluding the strategic reserve) for the week ended March 11 rose by 4.3 million barrels, or 1.1%, to 415.9 million barrels. Analysts, on the contrary, expected a decrease in the indicator - by 1.4 million barrels.

A one-time increase in stocks in the US should not be interpreted as a drop in demand, although this may ease fears about a shortage of supply in the US for some time, the Wall Street Journal quoted SPI Asset Management analysts.

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