17th of March – Oil prices rose on Thursday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that markets could lose three million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude and refined products beginning in April.
The IEA said in a report on Wednesday that the supply loss would be far greater than the expected one million bpd per day drop in demand caused by higher fuel prices. more info
After falling for three consecutive trading sessions, benchmark Brent crude futures rose $1.8, or 1.9 percent, to $99.86 per barrel by 0408 GMT.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude in the United States was up $1.66, or 1.7 percent, to $96.67 per barrel.
Both contracts closed lower the day before, owing to an unexpected increase in US crude stockpiles and signs of progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
“The market’s eagerness to trade the geopolitical fallout is waning, which is helping to squeeze some premium bubbles out of oil prices. It’s time to re-evaluate various factors “Wang Xiao, lead researcher at Guotai Junan Futures Co., agreed.
Prices had fallen in the previous session on news that US oil inventories increased by 4.3 million barrels in the week ending March 11 to 415.9 million barrels, exceeding analysts’ expectations of a 1.4 million barrel decline. more info
“Questions about how much Russian oil will continue to swing and uncertainty about how bad crude demand destruction will get will keep energy markets jittery,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
The oil market largely ignored the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, as expected.
Market sentiment was also boosted after China pledged policies to support financial markets and economic growth, while a drop in new COVID-19 cases in China raised hopes that authorities would lift travel bans and allow factories to resume production in cities under lockdown.
Source: Reuters
