Specifically, Brent oil prices decreased by 0.2%, down to 78.57 USD/barrel. US WTI oil prices increased by 0.1%, to 73.79 USD/barrel.
Although the week ended at mixed levels, both types of oil saw the first week of 2023 see a sharp decline due to concerns about a global economic downturn. For the whole week, Brent and WTI both fell more than 8% - the biggest weekly decline since 2016.
The US report shows that the country's economy has created more jobs at a stable level in December 2022, returning the unemployment rate to a low level before the COVID-19 pandemic of 3.5% due to the tight labor market.
This factor has pushed the USD up as investors bet that inflation is easing and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) does not need to raise interest rates as previously worried.
Data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that US distillate reserves have fallen to 1.4 million barrels, much higher than expected to fall by only 296,000 barrels; gasoline reserves also fell by 346,000 barrels last week, lower than analysts' expectations of falling by 486,000 barrels.
Analysts said that the decrease in US gasoline inventories has supported a slight increase in oil prices, despite previous concerns about demand and economic recession.
In another development, the world's leading crude oil exporter Saudi Arabia has lowered the price of light crude oil sold to the Asian market to its lowest level since November 2021 in the context of global pressure affecting oil.
Domestic retail prices of petroleum on January 7 are specifically as follows: E5 RON 92 gasoline is not more than VND 21,350/liter; RON 95 gasoline is not more than VND 22,150/liter; diesel is not more than VND 22,151/liter; kerosene is not more than VND 22,760/liter and mazut is not more than VND 13,633/kg.
