Oil prices fall to the lowest level in 7 months

Oil prices fell more than 4.5% on Wednesday, reaching their lowest level in seven months and prolonging their sharp losses, as a result of an unexpected rise in US crude inventories and fears of ## 147 ## 39, a drop in demand due to the intensification of the trade war between the United States and China.

The Brent contracts ended the session down by 2.71 USD, or 4.6%, to 56.23 USD per barrel, the lowest close since early January. The losses of the global benchmark have reached 24.5% since a peak reached in 2019 in April.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) futures contracts closed down $ 2.54, or 4.7%, at $ 51.09 per barrel.

Oil prices fell at the start of trading because of trade war concerns, and then increased their losses after government data showed an increase of 2.4 million barrels of US crude inventories, while badysts were expecting a decline of 2.8 million barrels.

The US Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories in the United States fell for seven consecutive weeks before the rise last week, but remained 2% above the average of the last five years of that period.

Brent prices have dropped about 14% since last week, following a sharp fall in global stock markets after US President Donald Trump announced that he would impose a right to 10% customs on additional Chinese products worth $ 300 billion as of September 1st.

The US Energy Information Administration lowered its forecast this week of demand for petroleum and petroleum products in the United States, as well as its forecast for global consumption of petroleum and crude petroleum products by 0.1% for 2019 and 2020.

At the same time, gross production in the United States is expected to increase by 1.28 million barrels per day to 12.27 million barrels per day this year.