Oil price nears $80 a barrel
PHOTO: FILE
Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday, with Brent crude trading near $80 a barrel despite the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, supported by supply outages and expectations that US inventories fell last week.
Brent crude rose by $0.55, or 0.7%, to $79.15 a barrel by 1410 GMT, after hitting a session high of $79.85. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $0.73, or 1%, to $76.30, after rising to $76.92.
Both contracts traded at their highest in a month. “Support comes as well from high aggregated production disruptions in Ecuador, Libya and Nigeria and the expectation of another large drop in US crude inventories,” said UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
The three oil producers declared force majeures this month on part of their oil production because of maintenance issues and oilfield shutdowns.
Meanwhile, a preliminary Reuters’ poll showed on Monday that US crude oil inventories are likely to have dropped for the fifth week in a row.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2021.
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