Oil prices changed little on Wednesday despite an unexpected plunge in commercial crude reserves in the United States, with the market remaining concerned about the level of global demand for black gold.

The barrel of North Sea Brent for delivery in March lost 0.18% or 10 cents to 55.81 dollars in London.

At the same time, the American barrel of WTI for the same month rose by 0.46% or 24 cents in New York to 52.85 dollars.

According to a weekly report by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) released on Wednesday, commercial crude oil stocks in the United States deflated by 9.9 million barrels (MB) the week ending January 22, falling to their lowest level since March last year.

On the contrary, analysts' median forecast was for an increase of 1.5 MB.

Despite this fall, which bodes well for fewer supplies, the market remained disrupted by alarming consumer signals.

“Economic data continues to show the negative impact of the second wave of coronavirus infections and vaccination campaigns around the world still leave much to be desired,” said Bart Melek of TD Securities.

“This is leading many observers, including TD Securities, to lower their demand forecasts for 2021,” the expert continues.

In particular, market experts believe that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, which have been holding production quotas for several months to curb falling prices, will show less discipline as prices rise.

The prices of the two reference contracts in fact began their last convalescence in November, with the announcement of vaccines against Covid-19, and have been established since mid-January in an area that investors seem to be faithful to the current situation of supply and demand for black gold.