Oil regained its breath on Thursday, December 15, 2022. Despite the upward adjustment of the IEA's long-term forecasts, investors took profits after three sessions of gains due to weak short-term demand.

The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in February gained 0.12%, at 82.80 dollars around 10:50 GMT (11:50 CET). A barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), its American equivalent, gained 0.01% to 77.29 dollars for delivery in January. Craig Erlam, an analyst at Oanda, believes that a strong dollar following the Federal Reserve's (Fed) monetary policy decision, “fears of a slowdown in growth,” or a “surprisingly large” jump in U.S. commercial oil reserves may explain the loss of speed in crude.

But in reality, he says, “we are witnessing a small gain of profits after a rebound.” Oil rose sharply after three consecutive sessions. Since oil is traded in dollars, a surge in the greenback weighs on the purchasing power of investors using foreign currencies and thus reduces demand. U.S. commercial crude stocks rose by 10.2 million barrels, when analysts expected a fall of 3.5 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) during the week ending December 9, 2022.

However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) raised its forecast for oil demand growth for this year and next year slightly from that of the previous month, according to its monthly report Wednesday, despite a “global economic context” possibly in road to recession.”