WTI-type oil closed Monday up 3.8% to $ 61.49, pressured by expectations of a slow recovery from the winter storm in Texas.
American oil type WTI, which serves as a benchmark for Ecuador, gained 3.8% and closed at USD 61.49 dollars a barrel breaking the USD 60 barrier for the first time in months.
For its part, crude Brent rose 3.7% and it closed at USD 65.24 a barrel.
US crude started the week with gains, affected by production cuts caused by cold temperatures in the oil state of Texas.
American producers they stopped pumping between two and four million barrels a day due to bad weather in Texas and other producing states.
It is feared that the unusually cold conditions will cause damage to oil facilities and that this will lengthen the cuts in production.
“The significant loss of oil and gasoline production suggests more bullish path and probability of new highs in a one-week time frame“, opinó Jim Ritterbusch, de Ritterbusch and Associates.
“With prices in the United States back at $ 60, it is likely that US production it takes a while to get back to normal, while engineers grapple with problems and damage to infrastructure“Explained CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
Disaster in Texas
President Joe Biden declared a “major disaster” in Texas, one of the states hardest hit by the storm that has caused at least 59 deaths in the country, and ordered federal assistance to support state and local efforts to recover the affected areas.
The storms that have ravaged Texas in recent days left millions of homes and businesses in the dark, although the electricity supply has already been gradually restored. Public water systems in different areas also collapsed.
More than four million people were without power and at least two dozen died after a blizzard hit the state last week and caused temperatures well below freezing.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, reported that his “immediate” priority is to continue in the tasks of restoring electricity to homes, which he clarified is no longer due to the lack of generation but to the fall of cables or the need service manual reconnection.
Another urgent task to undertake is to restore the water service, for which mobile liquid analysis laboratories have been set up, the licenses of dozens of local plumbers have been renewed and the arrival of others from nearby areas is being coordinated.
–
