wti price drop below 72 raises potential for an spr refill oil futures declined on thursday down a fifth session in a row to mark another finish at their lowest price in nearly a year traders continued to weigh the impact of the european unions ban on russian seaborne oil the group of sevens price cap on russian oil and prospects for energy demand but a drop below 72 a barrel for us benchmark oil prices raises the likelihood that the biden administration will buy crude to replenish the nations oil reserve traders have become more focused on oil demand expectations tyler richey coeditor at sevens report research told marketwatch on thursday following the decision sunday by major oil producers known as opec to leave oil production targets unchanged continuing on with output cuts that began in november also see why coal leads the rise in commodities this year data from the energy information administration on wednesday showed a fourthconsecutive weekly decline in us crude inventories down 52 million barrels for the week ending dec 2 however the eia also reported weekly inventory gains of 53 million barrels for gasoline and 62 million barrels for distillates the report pointed to some further deterioration in consumer demand as we approach the end of the year richey wrote in thursdays newsletter over the past four weeks motor gasoline supplied which is a proxy for demand fell by 71 from the same period last year to 84 million barrels per day the eia reported thats the lowest level since late january according to sevens report research that suggests a potential new drop off in consumer demand as broader inflation pressures grip personal balance sheets richey wrote news flow over the last week meanwhile has been decidedly bearish as hot economic data and hawkish federal reserve policy chatter have weighed on the broader outlook for the economy he wrote still oil prices found some support on news that tc energy corp stopped pumping oil from its 610000barreladay keystone pipeline after finding an oil leak this is a major supply source to the gulf coast refinery complex and could support crude oil prices and refinery cracks until it is resolved said the energy team in kansas city for stonex in a daily report referring to the crack spread which is the difference in price between refined products and crude oil meanwhile wti oil prices fell into the band of prices the biden administration had previously said may trigger repurchases of crude oil for the nations strategic petroleum reserve the biden administrations commitment to buy oil in the low 70s to replenish the spr is offering a fundamental biden put of softs in the market here said richey in october president joe biden said the administration intends to buy oil to refill the reserve when prices are at or below about 67 to 72 in other news the eia reported thursday that domestic naturalgas supplies fell by 21 billion cubic feet for the week ended dec 2 that compared with an average analyst forecast for a decline of 26 billion cubic feet according to a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights