Oil prices stabilized on Wednesday, with investors awaiting clear indicators on US stock data, and the expected meeting between the two presidents: American Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin, in Alaska.
Brent crude futures settled at $ 66.12 a barrel at 03:30 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate Futures decreased 6 cents to $ 63.11. Both decades settled on Tuesday.
Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday, to discuss the end of the Russian war in Ukraine, which has rocked the oil markets since February 2022.
ING -GJ strategy analysts said that oil investors are in a state of “anticipation and waiting” before the meeting. They added, “This result may remove some of the risks of the sanctions surrounding the market.”
Investors also waited for more indicators after an industrial report showed the rise in US crude stocks last week.
Sources in the market reported, quoting the numbers of the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, that crude stocks in the United States are the largest oil consumer in the world, increased by 1.52 million barrels last week. The gasoline stocks decreased, while the distillation products increased slightly.
If the US Energy Information Administration data, scheduled to be released later on Wednesday, also showed a decrease, it may indicate that consumption during the summer leadership season has reached its climax, and that the refineries reduce their production. The request season usually extends from the anniversary holiday at the end of May, to the Labor Day holiday in early September.
Analysts, Reuters, expect their opinions to show the US Energy Information Administration report, a decrease in crude stocks by about 300,000 barrels last week. The expectations issued by “OPEC” and the US Energy Information Department indicated on Tuesday that production increased this year, which also affected prices. But both expected to decrease production in the United States, the largest producer in the world, in 2026, while other areas will increase oil and natural gas production.
US crude oil will reach a record level of 13.41 million barrels per day in 2025 thanks to the increase in well productivity, although the decline in oil prices will push production to the decline in 2026, according to the expectations of the US Energy Information Administration in its monthly report.
The monthly report of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stated that the global demand for oil will rise by 1.38 million barrels per day in 2026, an increase of 100 thousand barrels per day from previous expectations. Its expectation has not changed for 2025.
On Tuesday, the White House was reduced from the expectations of a rapid ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine, which may lead investors to reconsider the end of the war soon, and any mitigation of the sanctions on Russian supplies that were supporting prices.
“Trump has reduced the expectations of his meeting with President Putin … However, the expectations for imposing additional sanctions on Russian crude oil continue to decline.”
