The price of Brent oil fell below $74 a barrel for the first time since December 22, 2021.

MOSCOW, March 15 – RIA Novosti. World oil prices accelerated the decline by as much as 5%, with the cost of Brent falling below $74 a barrel for the first time since December 22, 2021, according to trade data.

As of 18:36 Moscow time, the May futures price of Brent crude oil fell 4.71% to $73.8 a barrel, dropping below $74 for the first time since the end of 2021. April’s WTI futures fell 5.02% to $67.75.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reported that commercial oil reserves (excluding strategic reserves) in the country for the week ended March 10 were 480.1 million barrels, up 1.6 million barrels, or 0.3%. Analysts had expected inventories to rise by only 1.2 million barrels.

In addition, the International Energy Agency on Wednesday released a monthly report in which it said OPEC+ countries with obligations under an oil production limit agreement increased by 160,000 barrels per day in February, reducing the backlog on their quotas. increased from 1.9 million barrels a day to 1.7 million barrels.

At the same time, the agency also increased its forecast of 0.4 million barrels per day increase in world oil production in 2023 to 1.6 million barrels. Production is now expected to be 101.6 million barrels per day. Last month, the IEA predicted that global oil production would increase by 1.2 million barrels per day to 101.3 million barrels per day.