“Brent” and “West Texas” contracts fell 6% in a week .....

Oil prices rose during yesterday’s trading, despite the fact that travel restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the “Delta” mutator raise concerns about fuel demand, but it recorded a decline during the week’s trading.
According to “Reuters”, Brent crude futures rose 47 cents yesterday to $71.76 a barrel by 0640 GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 45 cents to $69.54 a barrel, but futures contracts for the two crudes are down 6 percent this week. It is its biggest loss since March.
Japan plans to extend emergency restrictions to include more provinces, and China, the world’s second largest oil consumer, has imposed restrictions in some cities and canceled flights, threatening fuel demand.
The United States and China, the world’s two largest oil consumers, are battling a fast-spreading outbreak of the highly contagious delta mutator, which analysts fear could lead to drastic reductions in fuel consumption, at a time when both countries usually see an increase.
“At least 46 Chinese cities have recommended avoiding travel, and the authorities have suspended flights and public transport, and this may affect oil demand as it approaches the end of the travel season during the summer,” ANZ said in a report.
The seasonal weakness of economic activity in light of the increasing infections with the “delta” axis continues to pressure sentiment, as about half of China’s regions suffer from the latest outbreak, and this comes at the height of the summer travel season, and demand for crude is likely to be under pressure.
US inventories data provided some support to crude prices, as inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates fell.
Two market sources, citing the American Petroleum Institute, said on Tuesday, “Crude stocks fell by 879,000 barrels in the week ending July 30.”
The two sources, who declined to be identified, said that the data revealed that gasoline stocks fell by 5.8 million barrels and distillate stocks fell by 717,000 barrels.
The spread of the delta mutator has limited the movement of cars on roads globally, as the repercussions of the third wave of Covid-19 continue to affect road traffic across Southeast Asian countries, which in turn affects fuel consumption globally.
In contrast, the US Energy Information Administration’s report on oil inventories for the week ending on July 30 showed a surplus of about 3.6 million barrels, compared to a deficit of about 4.1 million barrels, contrary to expectations that the deficit would shrink to 3.2 million barrels, to witness a decline in stocks to 439.2 million barrels, while stocks are still 6 percent, below the five-year average for this time of year.
As the report indicated, stocks of motor fuels in the United States, the largest energy consumer in the world, decreased by 5.3 million barrels, making stocks 3 percent, less than the average of the past five years for this time of year, while stocks of distillate derivatives rose 0.8 million barrels, while still Inventories are 6 per cent, below the five-year average for this time of year.
On the other hand, the “OPEC” crude basket declined, and its price reached $71.83 a barrel on Wednesday, compared to $72.71 a barrel the previous day.
In a related context, Fernando Borges, Executive Director of Exploration and Production Operations at the Brazilian Petrobras Company, said yesterday, “The company intends to drill 20 new oil wells between 2021 and 2022, in search of new reserves to maintain or increase production.”
“11 wells will be drilled in the Campos Basin, six exploration wells in the Santos Basin, two wells in the Espirito Santo Basin and two in the Equatorial Margin,” Bloomberg news agency quoted Borges as saying.
Borges said, “It is possible to drill eight wells in the Equatorial Margin basins by 2025, with an expected investment of one billion dollars, and Petrobras currently has 56 operating platforms to extract oil.”
The share price of the state-owned Brazilian oil company rose by 9.7 percent, in Sao Paulo stock trading Thursday, the largest daily rise for the company’s share since February 23, after the company announced results that exceeded expectations.
Petrobras’ total profit before taxes, interest, depreciation and debt rose during the second quarter of this year to 61.94 billion Brazilian riyals ($12.1 billion), while the average forecast of analysts polled by Bloomberg was 53.47 billion riyals, in light of the rise in prices. raw.
The company’s financial manager explained that the company’s total free cash flow during the second quarter of this year amounted to 48.8 billion riyals, which puts it on the road to reduce its debts to the target level during the current year, which is 60 billion dollars. At the same time, Petrobras generated free cash flow to equity during the first half of this year of $10.7 billion.
Oil production in Brazil rose by 4.6 percent in April, compared to the previous month, to record the second consecutive monthly rise, driven by the increase in production of Petrobras and Royal Dutch Shell.
The figures – issued by the National Agency for Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels – showed that Brazil produced an average of 2.97 million barrels per day in April, an increase of 0.5 percent from the same month last year.
Adding oil and gas together, the country produced 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in April, up 4.5 percent from March, and 1.7 percent more than in April of last year, according to the Hellenic Shipping platform. News. And the International Energy Agency, in a recent report, confirmed that Brazil is on its way to compensate for the losses it suffered last year in oil production, as the sector began a recovery phase.
If this trend continues, Brazil will become one of the few producing countries that compensated for its losses, but the outbreak of the Corona virus may lead to a faltering of this recovery.