International oil prices fell on Wednesday, in a reversal of what happened on Tuesday after news of a missile crash in Poland that was ultimately blamed on Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defense against Russian attacks.
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in December, fell 1.53% to close at 85.59 dollars in the New York market.
For its part, in London, the price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January lost 1.06%, trading at $92.86.
On Tuesday the market gained ground after the announcement of a missile strike near the Polish-Ukrainian border, initially attributed to Russia by a US intelligence official.
Polish President Andrzej Duda considered "highly probable" that it is a projectile used by Ukraine as an anti-aircraft defense against Russian attacks, a point that was validated by NATO and the White House.
This confirmation triggered sales in the black gold market, said Andrew Lebow of Commodity Research Group, although Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky said on Wednesday that the missile was Russian.
Traders reacted little to the announcement of commercial US crude stocks falling more than expected last week.
Commercial crude oil reserves fell sharply last week in the United States, by a magnitude higher than expected by the market, according to data published on Wednesday by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).
In the week ending November 11, these reserves fell 5.4 million barrels (mb), well above the 1.9 mb decline anticipated by analysts, according to the Bloomberg consensus.
The fall is even more surprising because US strategic crude oil reserves also lost 4.1 mb, which means a total of almost 10 mb less for the week.
This is the biggest drop in commercial crude stocks in a week since the beginning of August.
"I thought the market would go up" after these data, which should support prices as they show appetite for oilsaid Andrew Lebow.
But the report also showed falling gasoline demand, and these signals were seen as more important by traders, the analyst explained.