Oil prices continued their upward trend during last week; the gap between Brent and WTI also expanded during most of the week. During last week, WTI oil rose by 3.4%; Brent oil, by 1.9%. The concerns over the rising tensions between Iran and Israel might be contributing to the rally of oil rates. The recent news of the contraction in the EU GDP by 0.2% during Q2 2012 may have curbed the rise in oil prices. In the U.S the financial reports showed a mixed signal as to the progress of the economy: the Philly Fed index was still negative, while the retail sales edged up during July.  

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During last week, crude oil price (WTI) rose by 3.38% and reached $96.01/b; Brent oil also increased by 1.94% to $115.77/b; during August, WTI spot oil increased by 9.03%; Brent oil, by 9.29%.

The oil stockpiles declined again during the previous week by 4.5 M bl to reach 1,795.6 million barrels. The upcoming report will be published on Wednesday, August 22^nd and will refer to the week ending on August 17^th.