While, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures gained $1.99, or 1.7%, to $117.06 a barrel. extending last week’s solid gains.
“One of the reasons given for this is the imminent lifting of coronavirus restrictions in Shanghai, which is raising hopes that oil demand will pick up again in China”analysts at Commerzbank noted in a note to clients.
Shanghai announced the end of its two-month COVID-19 lockdown, and will allow the vast majority of people in China’s largest city to leave their homes and drive their cars from Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the EU met on Monday and Tuesday to discuss a sixth package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, actions that Moscow describes as a “special military operation.”
“Europe has been haggling over this issue for almost a month, but more and more the market is pricing (further sanctions) as a risk,” said Daniel Ghali, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities.
EU countries failed to agree on a ban on Russian oil imports, despite last-minute haggling, but the leaders of the 27 EU countries will approve an oil embargo in principle, according to the draft agreement. the conclusions of a summit, leaving the practical details and difficult decisions for later.
A new ban on Russian oil would strain a crude market which is already under severe supply pressure amid rising demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel ahead of the peak summer season in the US and Europe.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, will meet on Thursday to reject calls from the West to speed up output growth. They will maintain existing plans to increase their production target in July by 432,000 barrels a day, six OPEC+ sources told Reuters.
Source: Ambito
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