OPEC+ Brightens Oil Prices Outlook Through Any Near-Term Uncertainty

Both major oil benchmarks were trading above the $55 per barrel price level on the account that Brent crude futures traded at $58.77 a barrel after hitting its highest level since a year ago.

In addition, the U.S based oil contract, West Texas Intermediate futures was trading around $56 a barrel after also printing its highest settlement level in a year on Wednesday’s trading session.

Oil traders, had earlier placed their long bets as the latest American Petroleum institute data API showed the world’s largest economy energy demand as immensely improved on the bias it recorded inventory draws across the board.

However, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) revealed a different scenario, as it printed a little plunge in U.S oil crude inventories coupled with a significant build in gasoline, led oil Brent crude bulls to suffer some form of exhaustion as it approached the $59/barrel price level amid some profit-taking seen in such resistance area.

Adding woes to the oil bulls is the rising greenback which usually moves inversely to commodities. The U.S dollar recorded their highest levels in over 8 weeks, and has kept climbing up. At press time, the U.S dollar index used in gauging the greenback’s strength against major global currencies was up by 0.33% to trade at 91.44 index points.

That said, while recently released economic data hint the global economy seems to be bouncing up, there are still many residual lockdown concerns as sighted in the economy of the world’s largest importer of oil taking into consideration China’s service PMI plunge.

Still, OPEC+ disciplined supply management regime continues to support oil prices outlook through any near-term uncertainty.