Oil prices made big gains on Wednesday due to falling US inventories and stronger demand.
At 15:30 ET, WTI spot prices rose $ 2.70 per barrel, or 4.49% on the day at $ 62.88. Brent crude traded at $ 66.37 a barrel, which also rose $ 2.70 or 4.24%.
The futures contract for oil will end on Wednesday with the highest finish since March.
The significant price increase comes from the EIA reports of shrinking stocks of crude oil, coupled with higher prospects for demand for crude oil from OPEC earlier this week and the International Energy Agency today.
In Tuesday’s Monthly Oil Market Report, OPEC increased its global outlook for oil demand in 2021 by 190,000 bpd. Today, the IEA increased its outlook for global oil demand by 230,000. In conjunction with the 5.9 million barrel crude EIA report, strong economic data in China and rising geopolitical tensions in Russia / Ukraine and Israel / Iran, the overall sentiment in the oil market is particularly strong, although U.S. crude oil inventories are still above the five-year average for this time of year, at 492.4 million barrels.
According to OPEC, global demand after 2021 is expected to average 96.46 million bpd. The IEA now estimates that global oil demand will average 96.7 million bpd, he said in his April report published on Wednesday, due to improved economic forecasts and the prospects for accelerated vaccination programs.
At 16:30, ED, the May 2021 futures contract is trading at $ 62.94, compared to the previous settlement of $ 60.18. For WTI and Brent, the prices for the contract settlements on the first month are the highest since March 17th.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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