Oil prices picked up again on Thursday after a several-day slide.

In the afternoon, North Sea Brent crude was trading at a good $78 a barrel (159 liter barrel), the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at a good $74.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

An EU embargo and a G7 price cap on Russian oil have been in effect since Monday.

At the same time, estimates on the oil markets of how much recession concerns and the situation in China could affect oil demand are fluctuating.

After a sharp rise in prices on Monday morning, the price of oil had fallen by around $10 by Wednesday.

Both types of oil were temporarily listed on Wednesday at their lowest level in the course of the year.

The recent development in China was cited as the reason for the current stabilization on the oil market.

The government in Beijing has relaxed the tough corona measures in the country a bit.

Goldman expects oil to hit $115

Various analysts had recently predicted that the price of crude oil would rise to more than 100 dollars in the next few months.

The investment bank Goldman Sachs even expects the price to rise to $115 a barrel within three months.

So far, however, many energy prices have developed more moderately this winter than previously expected.

Petrol and diesel are 1 cent cheaper per liter

Meanwhile, the price of gasoline continued to fall on a weekly basis.

As reported by the ADAC car club in its weekly analysis of prices at 14,000 filling stations, the prices for diesel and Super E10 each fell by around 1 cent to EUR 1.729 per liter for Super E10 and EUR 1.833 per liter for diesel.

The ADAC referred above all to the sharp fall in the price of crude oil, but also to the fact that the euro was again somewhat stronger than the dollar.

The ADAC also points out that fuel prices continue to fluctuate strongly over the course of the day.

Anyone who fills up in the evening between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. can save around twelve cents per liter on average compared to the morning hours.

Heating oil recorded a further fall in price.

According to figures from the internet portal Heizoel24, the price fell to a good 114 euros per 100 liters.

This means that heating oil is cheaper than it has been since spring – but it is still more expensive than before the Ukraine war.

In March, heating oil cost more than 200 euros per 100 liters at times, and in October it was still 160 euros.

Oil industry officials have recently argued that current prices are now at levels at which households should buy if they haven't filled their tanks yet.