Oil prices were lower on Thursday as the White House announced that it will release 1 million barrels per day of oil for the next six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — in an effort to calm spiking oil and gas prices.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia (known as OPEC+) met on Thursday, deciding to hold production output largely steady. The group will boost output by 432,000 barrels per day beginning May 1.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for May fell 4% to trade at USD 108.89 per barrel. U.S. crude futures slid 4.7% to USD 102.84. Earlier in the session the contract traded as low as USD100.16.
For West Texas Intermediate, futures for May dropped 5.6% to trade at USD 102.15 per barrel.
Both market benchmarks were on track for the first month of their biggest quarterly percentage gains since the second quarter of 2020, but both announced decisions slowed that pace.
According to analysts, the US decision to release part of its strategic reserves is significant for the market because it is a considerable volume in a lengthy period, which would end shortage in the second quarter, and there would even be enough inventories for the third.
Prensa Latina
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