Oil climbs on tight U.S. supply even as coal, gas crunch eases
Oil prices resumed their climb on Friday on continued tightness in U.S. supply, but were headed for a flat finish on the week as coal and gas prices eased, curbing fuel-switching which had stoked demand for oil products for power.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled $1.26, or 1.5%, higher at $83.76 per barrel.
Brent crude futures climbed 92 cents, or 1.09%, to settle at $85.53 per barrel, recouping some of the previous session’s $1.21 slump. Brent touched a three-year high of $86.10 on Thursday but was on track to end the week unchanged.
The market hit multi-year highs earlier in the week on worries about coal and gas shortages in China, India and Europe, which spurred fuel-switching to diesel and fuel oil for power.
U.S. crude was headed for a 0.5% rise for the week, holding not far off a seven-year high hit earlier in the week as investors eye low crude stocks at the major Cushing storage location in Oklahoma.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data on Wednesday showed crude stocks at Cushing fell to 31.2 million barrels, their lowest level since October 2018, despite refinery crude runs having fallen in the week to Oct. 15.
China's crude oil output picks up in September
China's crude oil production rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to 16.61 million tons in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The growth rate was up by 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, and the country's daily average output of crude oil came in at 554,000 tons.
China saw an increase in its natural gas output in September, official data showed.
The country's natural gas output totaled 15.7 billion cubic meters last month, rising 7.1 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The volume rose 15.2 percent from that in September 2019, putting the two-year average growth at 7.3 percent.
Reference: CNBC
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