Oil rises over 1%
photo: file
Oil prices rose more than 1% on Thursday, as record US implied demand, falling crude stockpiles and an upbeat economic outlook from the Federal Reserve trumped fears of the Omicron coronavirus variant hurting global consumption.
Crude and other risk assets such as equities also got a boost after the Fed gave an upbeat economic outlook.
Brent crude oil was up $1.01, or 1.4%, to $74.89 a barrel by 1558 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.34, or 1.9%, to $72.21 a barrel.
Demand has been rising in 2021 after last year’s collapse.
On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said product supplied by refineries, a proxy for demand, surged in the latest week to 23.2 million barrels per day (bpd).
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2021.
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