By Adedapo Adesanya
For the fourth trading session, crude oil prices soared at the global market on Wednesday on the back of a fire that briefly stopped the flow of a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey.
This increased concerns about an already tight supply outlook amid worrisome geopolitical troubles in Russia and the United Arab Emirates, holding prices in the bullish territory.
Consequently, the price of the Brent crude futures rose by 93 cents or 1.06 per cent to trade at $88.44 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures jumped $1.53 or 1.8 per cent to $86.96 per barrel.
It was gathered that to address the pipeline issue yesterday, Turkey had to cut oil flows on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline after an explosion on the system, although the cause of the explosion was not announced.
The pipeline carries crude out of Iraq, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export.
In recent days, supply concerns have after Yemen’s Houthi group attacked the United Arab Emirates (UAE), OPEC’s third-largest producer, while Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, has built up a large troop presence near Ukraine’s border, stoking fears of invasion.
The tensions raise the prospect of supply disruptions at a time when OPEC and their allies, together called OPEC+, are already having difficulty meeting their agreed target to add 400,000 barrels per day of supply each month.
On the back of these, analysts expect prices to remain high as jet fuel consumption is rising with growth in international flights, while road traffic is much higher than the same time last year.
Outages in Libya, Ecuador, and Kazakhstan, coupled with downgrades to US, Russia, and Brazil forecasts, together result in 1 million barrels per day, indicating lower supply this month against the previous forecast.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday raised its demand growth estimates by 200,000 barrels per day for both 2021 and 2022.
Demand increased by 1.1 million barrels per day to 99 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2021, defying expectations of a serious hit to consumption due to the Omicron wave, the IEA said in its Oil Market Report (OMR).
The market is tighter than expected, the agency said, but still warned that there would be a surplus in the first quarter of 2022, with “demand set for a seasonal decline, exacerbated by more teleworking and less air travel.”
US President Joe Biden explained that his administration will work to try to increase oil supplies in the world’s largest oil producer.
The administration had authorized the release of 50 million barrels of crude oil – in a mix of loans and sales – from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year, but it had minimal effect on the market.
Modupe Gbadeyanka