HOUSTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices decreased for the week ending May 10, with the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery down 0.45 percent and Brent crude oil for July delivery down 0.32 percent.
At the end of the week, WTI edged down to 61.66 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude closed down at 70.62 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. WTI and Brent have increased 35.79 percent and 31.26 percent, respectively, so far this year.
During the week, WTI and Brent moved by and large in the same directions, except Thursday and Friday when WTI edged down and Brent crude edged up amid signs of tightening global energy market and geopolitical tensions.
On Monday, oil prices got support from the latest escalation of geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran. WTI increased 0.31 U.S. dollar to settle at 62.25 dollars a barrel, while Brent crude was up 0.39 dollar to close at 71.24 dollars a barrel.
Following the exit from the Iran nuclear deal in May last year, the U.S. administration has kept piling up pressure on Iran through a series of sanctions and designations, which have been strongly opposed and criticized by Tehran.
Oil prices declined on Tuesday as market participants grew concerned about energy demand amid global trade uncertainties. WTI fell 0.85 dollar to settle at 61.40 dollars a barrel, while Brent crude decreased 1.36 dollars to close at 69.88 dollars a barrel.
On Wednesday, oil prices climbed after newly-released data showed a surprise drop of 4.0 million barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles, defying the market forecast with a build of 1.215 million barrels, implying greater demand and bullish for crude prices. WTI rose 0.72 dollar to settle at 62.12 dollars a barrel, while Brent crude was up 0.49 dollar to close at 70.37 dollars a barrel.
On Thursday and Friday, WTI fell 0.42 dollar and 0.04 dollar to settle at 61.70 dollars and 61.66 dollars a barrel respectively, while Brent crude increased 0.02 dollar and 0.23 dollar to close at 70.39 dollars and 70.62 dollars a barrel respectively.
Oil prices have kept gaining momentum since the start of the year due to some geopolitical concerns but the momentum slowed down in the last two weeks, mainly due to concerns over downturn in demand for crude oil.
Moreover, a rising U.S. dollar has dragged down the greenback-denominated crude futures, as the U.S. Dollar Index has been keeping uptrend in the past months, although the index closed down for the week at 97.20 level.
The U.S. Dollar Index is a measure of the value of the U.S. dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies. Oil is mostly traded in dollars all over the world and a stronger dollar pressures the oil demand.
In the near future, demand growth and geopolitical issues are important factors to affect oil prices. Both OPEC and the International Energy Agency believe the world oil demand will keep uptrend in coming years, although OPEC has revised down demand growth of the world oil market.
In the coming week, analysts believe the ongoing production cuts by OPEC and Russia, as well as the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and Iran will continue to play their roles in tightening the global supplies, in turn, giving a boost to the prices.
