• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 13 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 2 days Could Someone Give Me Insights on the Future of Renewable Energy?
  • 2 days How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 6 days e-truck insanity
  • 9 hours They pay YOU to TAKE Natural Gas
  • 4 days An interesting statistic about bitumens?
  • 8 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 9 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)

Oil Prices Rise On Record U.S. Oil Demand

The price of WTI crude rose nearly 2% on Thursday on EIA reports that U.S. implied petroleum products demand had risen to record heights.

U.S. implied petroleum products demand rose to 23.191 million bpd for week ending December 10. The previous record was set during week ending August 27 of this year, which reached fresh highs of 22.820 million bpd.

The increase in demand for petroleum products inspired fresh optimism in the market, as uncertainty in the markets faded after the Federal Reserve’s announcement.

The price of a barrel of WTI rose to $72.04, up $1.17 (+1.65%) on the day. The price of a Brent barrel also increased despite measures taken to thwart the new Omicron variant, rising to $74.76, up $0.88 (+1.19%) on the day. Oil prices are now at a three-week high.

The price moves come just days after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister warned traders not to short oil as they did over Thanksgiving.

To prevent such actions, the OPEC+ group left open its previous meeting in case it needed to make last-minute changes to its production strategy. Currently, the group is slated to increase production by 400,000 bpd starting in January. But excessive shorts or falling prices could prompt the group to curb those production increase plans.

Indeed, leaving the meeting open and in a suspended state, and Saudi Arabia’s warnings to shorters that betting against oil would leave traders “ouching like hell” have lent support to oil prices.

The oil price rise is somewhat tempered by fears of an Omicron surge that some argue is, at this point, unstoppable.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News