Oil is getting cheaper, Brent is around $81.75 per barrel

Benchmark crude oil prices are slightly lower on Friday morning after falling during the previous session.

July Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange were at $81.75 a barrel as of 8:14 a.m., down 11 cents from the previous close. On Thursday, these contracts fell by $1.74 (2.1%) to $81.86 per barrel.

July WTI futures in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) were down $0.23, or 0.3%, at $77.68 a barrel by this time. A day earlier, futures fell $1.32 (1.7%) to $77.91 a barrel.

The pressure on quotes was exerted by a general decrease in investor interest in risky assets, which also led to a decline in US stock indices and a rise in US government bond yields.

“The US economy remains resilient and inflation remains a concern. Under such conditions, the Federal Reserve has the ability to keep rates high for a long period of time, which is bad for oil demand forecasts and puts pressure on prices,” said Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at ActivTrades.

Even data that US commercial oil inventories fell by 4.16 million barrels last week, while experts expected a 1.15 million barrel drop, failed to support the market.

Meanwhile, gasoline stocks rose by 2.02 million barrels and distillate stocks by 2.54 million barrels. Analysts had forecast a drop in gasoline stocks by 1.5 million barrels and the same level in distillate stocks.

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Brent oil