recovered oil prices are strong, Today, Monday, following falling by more than two dollars a barrel in the previous session, amid optimism regarding China’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions and the recovery of oil demand, which overshadowed fears of a global recession.
Brent crude futures rose 72 cents, or 0.9%, to $79.76 a barrel by 01:03 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was $74.89 a barrel, up 60 cents, or 0.8%.
China, the world’s largest crude oil importer and second oil consumer, is seeing the first of three expected waves of “Covid-19” cases following Beijing eased movement restrictions.
“Despite the increase in Covid cases, optimism resulting from reopening and policy easing (related to Covid) is improving the outlook for oil demand,” said CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng.
On Friday, Chinese business news outlet Kaixin reported that China plans to increase flights with the aim of restoring the country’s average daily passenger flight volume to 70 percent of 2019 levels by Jan. 6.
China’s exports of diesel and gasoline continued to rise in November, reaching their highest level in more than a year, as refiners scrambled to use up their 2022 export quotas and sell growing inventories.
Brent and West Texas Intermediate rose more than 3% last week, as a pipeline from Canada to the United States remained closed as operator TC Energy focused on clearing an oil spill.
The closure of the pipeline, which transports 622 thousand barrels per day of Canadian crude to American refineries, supported the prices of heavy American crude grades.
The announcement by the US Department of Energy on Friday that it would start buying back crude oil in order to boost the Strategic Petroleum Reserve also fueled expectations of higher prices.
This will be the first purchase for the United States since the release of 180 million barrels of storage this year, which is a record amount.
