Oil steadies as OPEC fuels demand hopes amid new COVID-19 worries
Oil prices steadied on Tuesday as broad hopes for a demand recovery persisted, fueled by comments from OPEC’s secretary general, slightly overshadowing travel curbs due to new outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Brent crude futures settled up 8 cents, or 0.1%, at$74.76 a barrel, having slumped by 2% on Monday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $72.98 a barrel, after a 1.5% retreat on Monday.
Demand in 2021 was expected to grow by 6 million barrels per day (bpd), with 5 million bpd of that in the second half, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo told Tuesday’s meeting of the Joint Technical Committee of OPEC+, an alliance made up of OPEC states, Russia and their allies.
OPEC’s demand forecasts show that in the fourth quarter global oil supply will fall short of demand by 2.2 million bpd, giving the producers some room to agree to add output.
Investors will be looking to the latest U.S. Energy Department oil inventory data on Wednesday for cues on the demand outlook.
Reference: Reuters
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