Oil prices are down significantly, under the pressure of a report on US petroleum reserves, much weaker than yesterday's data on the API.

US Department of Energy reported that in the week of June 25 - July 1, oil stocks fell by 2.2 million barrels to 524.4 million barrels. This is close to the highest level for more than 80 years. Forecasts indicated a decrease of 2.5 million barrels. Oil reserves in Cushing terminal fell by 82,000 barrels to 64.1 million barrels. It was predicted a decline of 400,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by 122,000 barrels to 238.9 million barrels. Analysts had expected stocks to fall 300,000 barrels. Distillate stocks fell 1.6 million barrels to 148.9 million barrels as nalysts had forecast an increase of 100,000 barrels. The utilization of refining capacity fell by 0.5% to 92.5% and oil production fell to 8.428 million barrels per day versus 8.622 million barrels the previous week, the maximum rates since September 2013.

Yesterday the American Petroleum Institute reported that for the week to July 3, crude oil inventories fell to 6.736 million barrels, a record change from June 2015. Gasoline inventories also fell 3.6 million barrels. Distillate stocks fell 2.3 million barrels, while crude oil stocks in the Cushing terminal rose by 80 thousand barrels.

Continued high demand for oil in China and India gave little suport to prices. Experts disagree on when the supply and demand balance will be restored, but more and more analysts are inclined to think that the situation has tightened the supply of oil, and the market could be in deficit within two years.

However, Libyan officials said that export oil terminals, which have been closed since 2014, may reopen in the near future. As a result, the export potential can be restored to 600,000 barrels per day.

The cost of the August futures for WTI fell to 46.46 dollars per barrel.

The price of August futures for Brent fell to 47.62 dollars a barrel on the London Stock Exchange ICE Futures Europe.