Oil recovers as tight U.S. supplies offset China reserves sale plan
Oil prices rose on Friday on growing signs of tightness in U.S. markets after Hurricane Ida hit offshore output, although benchmarks were heading for weekly losses of nearly 1% after China announced plans to sell crude from its strategic reserves.
Brent crude futures for November rose 63 cents, or 0.9%, to $72.08 a barrel by 0624 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for October was at $68.65 a barrel, up 51 cents, or 0.8%.
Brent is headed for a second straight weekly loss.
Both contracts fell more than 1% on Thursday to settle at their lowest since Aug. 26 after China said it would release crude oil reserves here to the market via public auction to ease the pressure of high feedstock costs on domestic refiners, in a move that was described as a first.
Some analysts said the announcement had likely been made to confirm the sale of reserves in July and August.
Reference: Reuters
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