Weekly Oil Report: Up or Down, All Things Are Vague

Market participants are still in a dilemma with the oil direction. Petroleum product traders have the same anxiety in several regions.

On May 19, Brent oil closed around $75.84 and WTI settled above $71.83.

As you can observe on the daily chart, Brent’s downtrend is not over. Though, we can see a moderate weakness in the movement. On the 1-hour chart, the price is fluctuating in the triangle. If it breaks upward, it can get to 79 and if it breaks downward, it can touch 71 again.

According to the Bank of America, oil will head towards 90 in the 2nd half of 2023.

“We’ll get back up over $80 in the second half of the tear, toward $90, because the deficit is going to get deeper over the course of the next six to nine months,” Blanch, head of commodities research at Bank of America told “Bloomberg Surveillance Early Edition” on Friday.

He believes that the OPEC cuts, demand rebuild and lack of response from US Shale will be the reasons for this movement.

On the other hand, there are people suspecting the upward movements of oil. This uncertainty is making many bitumen and petrochemical players indecisive about their new purchases.

Bitumen, therefore, had an unbalanced condition. In European regions, the price was increasing and in the Middle East, we had declining prices. Fuel also continued falling. 

Below, you can check several bitumen prices in different regions.