Currently oil prices continue to gradually increase, despite OPEC agreeing to pump more oil at their last meeting a couple of weeks ago. The driver for prices right now are the decreasing oil reserves in the United States. Oddly enough, when OPEC kept production under tight levels, the States were increasing their reserves week after week, but now the roles have reversed. Oil supplies in the US are currently lower because of a facility malfunction in Canada that typically delivers oil to the United States. The estimated drop is about 4.5 million barrels, according to the American Petroleum Institute
As usual, decreases of supply on the market lead to increases in price. The Brent crude was at $77.83, while the light crude reached $73.97.
The issue with the Canadian supplies is set to continue over the next few weeks, so oil reserves might shrink a bit more. We expect the price of oil to steadily rise in the near future.
