Oil prices are falling sharply on Thursday under the pressure of signals of weakening demand for gasoline in the US.

The cost of September futures for Brent oil on the London ICE Futures exchange by 14:02 Moscow time on Thursday is $102.29 per barrel, which is $4.63 (4.33%) lower than the closing price of the previous session.

At the same time, at a certain moment of trading, the price of Brent fell by more than 5%, to $101.5 per barrel.

The price of futures for WTI oil for September in the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange is $95.25 per barrel by this time, which is $4.63 (4.64%) lower than the final value of the previous session.

The report of the US Department of Energy, published the day before, indicated an increase in gasoline stocks in the country last week by 3.5 million barrels, to 228.4 million barrels. Meanwhile, the average US gasoline consumption over the past four weeks showed that the rise in fuel prices has limited its consumption to the level of two years ago, Bloomberg notes.

“U.S. gasoline demand is not too strong, despite the fact that now is the peak consumption season,” said Zhaojin Futures Co. analyst Gao Jian. decrease.”

Oil prices have been under pressure since mid-June amid growing risks of a recession in the global economy associated with the tightening of monetary policy by world central banks, writes Trading Economics.

Traders are also monitoring the situation around the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Gas pipeline operator Nord Stream AG said on Thursday that Russian gas supplies through it had resumed after technical work had been carried out since July 11.

Meanwhile, Britain decided to impose a ban on coal imports from Russia in August and on oil imports at the end of December, Downing Street reported on Thursday. „An amendment is being adopted that prohibits the import of oil and oil products, coal and gold. It is also prohibited to directly or indirectly purchase, supply these goods,” the clarifications published on Thursday read.