Early Friday trade indicated that oil prices had risen, driven by increased demand from the world’s two biggest consumers China and the United States.
An upbeat assessment of prospective rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve added credence to this according to The Times.
Brent oil futures were up 0.6%, or 49 cents, to $83.45 a barrel as of 04:15 GMT. In a similar vein, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 60 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $79.53.
Even with these gains, the week-over-week trend for both benchmarks was somewhat negative. In particular, WTI and Brent fell by 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively.
“The U.S. fuel inventory fell significantly last week, with distillate stockpiles falling by 4.1 million barrels and petrol reserves falling by 4.5 million barrels. This greater-than-expected drop suggests strong demand, according to the Energy Information Administration.
China’s imports of crude oil increased by 5.1% in the first quarter of 2024 over the same period the year before. As the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, India’s robust industrial sector contributed to a 5.7% year-over-year increase in fuel consumption in February.
Crude oil prices are rising in tandem with OPEC+’s voluntary output reduction, which is mostly being supported by Russia and Saudi Arabia.
President Tinubu issued a number of executive directives earlier this week with the intention of boosting investment and oil output in the industry. The new regulations intend to lower contracting costs and schedules, boost cost-effective local content standards, and boost fiscal incentives for oil and gas projects.
According to OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report, “Nigeria produced 1.65 million barrels of crude oil in January. Nonetheless, in order to reach President Tinubu’s $1 trillion GDP target in the next three years, his administration intends to increase crude oil output.”
