Oil prices made big gains on Wednesday due to falling U.S. inventories and stronger demand.
At 3:30 pm ET, WTI spot prices rose $ 2.70 a barrel, or 4.49% a day, to $ 62.88. Brent crude was trading at $ 66.37 a barrel, also up $ 2.70 (4.24%).
The future of oil is expected to end on Wednesday, with the highest result since March.
The significant price increase is due to EIA reports on the reduction in US crude inventories, along with OPEC’s higher crude oil demand prospects earlier this week and the International Crude Oil Agency. Energy.
In Tuesday’s monthly oil market report, OPEC raised its global oil demand outlook for 2021 by 190,000 bpd. Today, the IEA has increased its global oil demand prospects by 230,000 over its previous report. When taken with the EIA report on crude inventories that fell 5.9 million barrels, strong economic data in China and geopolitical tensions in Russia / Ukraine and Israel / Iran, the general sentiment of the Oil market is particularly bullish, although US crude inventories remain above the five-year average this time of year, at 492.4 million barrels.
According to OPEC, global oil demand for 2021 is now expected to reach an average of 96.46 million bpd. The IEA now estimates that global oil demand will reach an average of 96.7 million barrels per day, according to its April report released on Wednesday, based on improved economic forecasts and accelerating prospects. vaccination programs.
At 4:30 p.m., ED, the May 2021 futures contract was trading at $ 62.94, compared to the previous settlement of $ 60.18. For WTI and Brent, first-month contract settlement prices are the highest since March 17.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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