On Friday morning, Brent oil prices are within the «sideways» range of $77.20-77.90 per barrel. In yesterday's session, the quotes fell sharply from the level of $79.60 to $77.10. 

North American WTI oil shows a similar trend: a drop to $71.78 from the area of $74.30 per barrel. 

The main reason for yesterday's price drop was a decrease in fears about Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Danish transport and logistics company A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS has announced the resumption of transportation across the Red Sea after an international mission to ensure security in the region.

Even data on oil and petroleum products reserves in the United States could not correct the situation. Commercial oil reserves in the United States decreased by 6.911 million barrels last week, which was a record decrease in the last four months. Analysts had forecast a reduction of 2.7 million barrels.

However, inventories at the Cushing terminal increased by 1.508 million barrels, marking the tenth consecutive week of growth. Such dynamics have not been observed since 2016.