By Adedapo Adesanya
The prices of crude oil moved in different directions on Thursday with the global benchmark facing south and the United States’ benchmark heading north.
According to data obtained by Business Post, the price of the Brent crude depreciated by 12 cents or 0.18 per cent yesterday to $66.92 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude increased by 0.3 per cent or 19 cents to trade at $63.45 per barrel.
The outcome on Thursday indicated that the market had weaned itself of highs that followed an unexpected rise in US oil inventories and a broader lift to the reflation trade taking place across global markets.
It was reported at the previous session that the US crude oil stockpiles rose in the last week, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which said crude inventories increased 1.28 million barrels in the period.
This also saw US crude oil production dropped by more than one million barrels per day last week during Texas’s deep freeze.
It was said that the overall output fell by 1.1 million bpd to 9.7 million barrels per day in the week to February 19. This helped prices up for a few days.
Also, banking institutions have forecast that the commodity has a good year ahead. The latest is coming from Barclays, which raised its oil price forecasts on Thursday, saying oil could rally again on the weaker-than-expected supply response by US oil operators to higher prices.
It, however, warned that it is cautious over the near term on easing support from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+), risks from more transmissible COVID-19 variants and elevated positioning.
Members of OPEC+ are due to meet on March 4 to discuss a modest easing of oil supply curbs from April, given a recovery in prices. However, some are suggesting that the cartel hold steady for now, given the risk of new setbacks in the battle against the pandemic but others are calling for easing.
Extra voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia in February and March have tightened global supplies and supported prices.
The talks are likely to lead to a rollback of Saudi Arabia’s unilateral output cut, according to analysts.
