Oil prices weakened today, with WTI Crude oil declining by 1.35% to settle at $79.06. Meanwhile, natural gas prices surged by 6.74% to close at $2.567.
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The dip in oil prices came as the U.S. said it would sell another 26 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Reserve. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at its lowest levels since 1983, and after this latest sale, the Reserve would dip to around 345 million barrels.
Meanwhile, the rise in demand for oil led to the global oil and gas industry’s profits soaring to $4 trillion in 2022 versus an average of $1.5 trillion in recent years, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol. Birol was speaking at a conference in Oslo.
However, Birol warned that countries that depend on oil and gas for revenues should be prepared to take a hit as demand is likely to fall over the long term.
Latest numbers from the Energy Information Administration indicate natural gas inventories in the U.S. dropped by 217bcf to 2,366bcf in the week ended February 3.
Furthermore, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) is up 0.22% at the time of writing. Here is a list of energy stocks that can be influenced by the latest developments in the energy markets.
