© Reuters. Oil prices are on the rise and trying to recover from their steep losses
Arabictrader.com – Crude oil prices rallied slightly during trading on Thursday, supported by improving investor sentiment following China’s decisions, coupled with buoyant US oil inventories, which boosted prices by .
In side trade, spot contracts edged up 0.75% to hit around 78.41 a barrel, while spot US crude contracts rose 1.21% to hit $73.55 per barrel.
The most important reasons that supported crude oil:
China’s recent decisions to ease restrictions against epidemics have helped revive investor hopes that these decisions will boost demand for crude oil from the world’s largest crude importer as China announced a new set of measures easing related to epidemic restrictions, which lifted investor sentiment on their expectation of increased demand for crude oil, to support oil prices during today’s trading.
In addition, U.S. oil inventories data, released last night, supported higher crude prices, as U.S. oil inventories fell for the fourth straight week and inventories fell by about 5.2 million barrels , contrary to expectations this pointed to a drop in US oil stockpiles of about 3.5 million barrels, after oil stocks posted a decline of about 12.6 million barrels last week.
Similarly, there are indications that the repercussions of the Russian oil price cap mechanism have already started to affect crude oil prices, as European Union countries, together with G7 countries, have started enforcing the price maximum of Russian oil at 60 dollars a barrel since December 5 of this year as well. The fact that the European Union countries have decided to impose a ban on their imports of Russian oil has already entered into force, as there are at least 20 camels that have been delayed in crossing to the Mediterranean Sea loaded with Russian oil.
It is worth noting that crude oil prices have started to improve after hitting their lowest level this year, amid growing investor fears of a slowdown in the global economy, lest this slowdown lead to lower demand for crude, which will lead to a drop in Crude oil prices, pending US economic data due to be released earlier this week.
