Peter Nurse   

Investing.com — Thursday’s oil price decline was the second straight day since Iran suggested that talks over its nuclear programme would soon begin. Stocks rose, however, more so than analysts expected.

U.S. crude oil futures fell 0.7% to $82.06 per barrel at 9:30 ET (1330 GMT) after dropping 2.4% Wednesday. Futures fell 0.8% to $83.22 per barrel. This is a drop of more than 2% from the previous session.

U.S. The price of gasoline RBOB Futures was down 0.5% to $2.3665 per gallon.

The U.S. Energy Department released data Wednesday showing that oil prices dropped from highs of multi-years. It showed that they rose by 4.3million barrels last week. That’s more than twice their 1.9million-barrel expected gain.

It was also higher than the 2.33 million barrel gain that the sector-funded Tuesday suggested.

Oil prices hit a seven-year high on Tuesday, driven up by continued robust demand in the United States and the tight global supply situation, but the rise in U.S. stocks hints that the demand growth in the world’s biggest consumer may be slowing.

This is despite the fact that U.S. growth slows more than anticipated in the third-quarter, which saw an increase of 2% annually after 6.7% growth during the second quarter.

To add to Thursday’s negative mood was news from Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, that Tehran plans to resume negotiations last June in order to revive its 2015 nuclear accord by the end November. 

Iran wants to get rid of U.S.-imposed sanctions that prevent it from selling its oil to other countries. They were placed by Donald Trump’s predecessor in 2018.

European prices fell on Thursday as well after Russian President Vladimir Putin directed Gazprom (MCX) to concentrate on filling European storage locations starting Nov. 8th, a day following completion of the Russian process. 

The move will “create a more favorable situation on the European energy market,” Putin said at a meeting broadcast on state television Wednesday.