WTI Crude Oil: Price held above trade of $81 per barrel on Friday and were on track for a weekly rise for the first time since early November,
Benefiting mainly from China’s softening stance on Covid that sparked hopes for a rebound in demand from the world’s top crude importer.
A top Chinese official hinted at a more moderate approach in fighting the virus, while Beijing announced that it would allow low-risk patients to isolate at home. On the supply side,
latest data showed that US crude oil price and inventories trade fell by nearly 13 million barrels last week, the most since June 2019, while traders fretted about the prospect of further production cuts from OPEC+ ahead of its meeting on Dec. 4.
Meanwhile, European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below market prices, as reported by Reuters.
While Dutch front-month natural gas were around €140 MWh after rising to as high as €164.9 MWh in the beginning of December, which was the highest level in two months, as temperatures are set to fall as winter sets in, reducing stockpiles. Storages in the EU were 93.6% full as of November 28th, lower than 93.9% the day before.
In Germany, stocks went down to 98.6% from 98.9%. Meanwhile, there are also processing issues at the Troll field in Norway and the UK’s Barrow North terminal.
