For a Second Consecutive Day, Oil Rises on Supply Expectations
For the 2nd day in row, oil rose supported by anticipations of tighter supply and based on reports of high Chinese demand. However prices continued to remain under pressure amidst rising US gasoline and crude inventories.
The international benchmark, Brent Crude rose to $54.31 by 15 cents per barrel whereas US WTI (West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose to $51.54 by 17 cents per barrel.
IEA stated that though it is too soon to gauge the compliance of OPEC members with promised cuts, in the developed world commercial oil inventories fell for the 4th consecutive month in November and a decline is also projected for the month of December.
The statistics bureau data showed that for the month of December refinery runs of China rose to 47.82 million tonnes, up by 3.7%. The data also showed that crude throughput touched a record 10.79 million bpd.
Chief market analyst, Ric Spooner at CMC Markets Sydney stated that it was anticipated that Chinese data will be positive for the market and growth demand will continue this year also.
In the 4th quarter, the economy of China grew by more than expected 6.8% and the growth has been boosted by record bank lending and higher government spending. But, rising gasoline stocks and crude oil in the US are capping prices.
Crude inventories in the US increased 2.3 million barrels in the 2nd week of January as compared to analyst expectations of 342,000.
According to ANZ, crude oil prices remained range bound although the weekly report of EIA showed a gain in inventories.
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Brent crude was up 40 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $ 81.66 a barrel at 9:10 a.m., after rising 2.5 Read more
