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London-Friday oil prices stabilized near $ 77.50 a barrel for the first time in two months, heading for the third straight week of rise, supported by global production turmoil and inventory pulls.
The rally was slightly weakened by China’s first public sale of its country’s crude oil reserves.
Brent crude has risen 222 cents (0.28%) at $ 77.47 a barrel by 0743 GMT, the highest since July 6th and close to the highest since October 2018.
US oil rose 7 cents (0.1%) to $ 73.37 a barrel, closing at 1.5% in the last session, the highest since early August.
Oil prices have surged in US and global inventories over the past few weeks, supported by the turmoil in US Gulf Coast production following hurricane Ida and other storms, and in some cases may last for months. doing.
US oil refiners looking for alternatives to Gulf crude are looking to Iraqi and Canadian oil, according to analysts and traders.
Some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and an ally known as OPEC + also struggled to increase production due to lack of investment and delays in maintenance work during the pandemic that began last year.
UBS analysts said the price of Brent crude could reach $ 80 a barrel by the end of September due to inventory pulls, lower OPEC production and rising demand in the Middle East.
“What may still allow Brent to hit that mark in the coming weeks is the continued decline in oil inventories caused by unplanned supply disruptions.”
Nevertheless, profits were limited by the public sale of China’s first national oil reserves.
State-owned PetroChina and Hengri Petrochemical, a private refiner and producer of chemicals, have purchased a total of about 4.43 million barrels of four cargoes, according to sources with direct knowledge of the auction.
Just before the auction, WoodMac analysts said it would have little impact on the market due to its large sales compared to Chinese consumption and imports.
Ron Busso
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