Oil ended Wednesday’s session with small gains, which was enough for the US crude to reach another close at its highest level since October 2014.
Crude contracts mostly moved in negative territory today, following the agreement between OPEC and its OPEC + allies to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day in March, continuing to grow at the same pace. in recent months as part of the Agency’s strategy to gradually bring back supply levels back to the market at the height of the coronavirus crisis when demand collapsed.
OPEC + still “believes that global demand recovery is underway,” said Rohan Reddy, a research analyst at Global X, noting that OPEC predicts “strong growth in global oil demand this year, despite expected interest rate hikes and Omicron variant “.
However, OPEC + once again did not succumb to pressure from the US and other major oil consumers to increase production, as some of its members failed to meet production targets last month, but also due to the uncertainty it creates. the Ukrainian crisis, which allowed prices to recover.
Oil prices rose further after the announcement of the data of the Energy Information Service, which showed an unexpected decrease in US crude reserves last week.
In particular, according to EIA data, US crude stockpiles fell by 1 million barrels last week, contrary to the estimates of analysts in a poll by S&P Global Platts who expected stockpiles to increase by 1.1 million barrels.
The EIA data also showed a decrease of refined products by 2.4 million barrels, higher than the estimates that spoke of a decrease of 1 million barrels.
On the other hand, according to the EIA, US gas stocks rose last week, which increased by 2.1 million barrels. Analysts expected an increase, but smaller by 1.7 million barrels.
West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery closed 6 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $ 88.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, this small increase was enough to mark another closure at the highest level since October 2014, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Brent crude for April delivery was up 31 cents, or 0.4%, at $ 89.47 a barrel, after falling further from the $ 90.52 high.
Source: Capital
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