Oil prices fell slightly on Monday morning.

At 9:25 am (Brasilia time) this Monday (18), the July contract of WTI crude oil showed a slight decrease of 0.24% in New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), quoted at US$100.78/barrel. The contract expiring in the same month as Brent It fell 0.23% in Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), traded at US$ 109.01/barrel. On Friday (15), the WTI It advanced 4.23%, to US$101.02/barrel, and the Brent It rose 3.35%, to US$109.26/barrel. For the week, futures accumulated gains of 5.89% and 7.87%, respectively. This morning, data from… National Bureau of Statistics of China, which show that crude oil processing fell in April to its lowest level since August 2022, while crude and refined product inventories increased during the period. The Asian country is the world's second-largest oil consumer. However, further losses were limited by information that a drone attack carried out this Sunday (17) hit the only nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, causing a fire in its perimeter. The incident did not cause a radioactive leak, but it raised the risk of a return to hostilities, given that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran remains fragile. According to Reuters, Pakistan shared a revised Iranian proposal with the US this weekend to end the conflict in the Middle East. The market awaits further updates on the situation. In an interview given earlier, Fatih Birol, president of International Energy Agency (IEA)He said that commercial oil inventories were rapidly depleting, with only a few weeks' worth of supplies remaining.

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.