While demand for gasoline weakens, oil inventories fall again. Commercial crude oil reserves in the United States fell much more sharply than expected for the eighth consecutive week.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced on Wednesday that  gasoline stock has recovered in the face of weaker demand, while that of black gold is declining. According to the weekly report, crude inventories plunged 7.9 million barrels (MB) to 437.6 MB for the week ended July 9. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a median decline of 4 MB. Gasoline inventories, on the other hand, rebounded slightly by one million barrels to 236.5 MB, after the record drop the previous week. Analysts were still expecting them down 2 MB.

However, demand for gasoline has decreased significantly (-760,000 barrels per day) compared to the week at the beginning of July. And total demand for petroleum products also slowed from one week to the next at 9.28 million barrels per day (-2.2 mbd), due to a decline in demand for gasoline but also distilled products such as diesel (-675,000 barrels per day). Slightly down before the release of the EIA report, the price of a barrel of WTI stalled, giving up 2.30% to $ 73.52 around 16:15 GMT.