Oil heads for fourth weekly gain as Saudi Arabia sees recovery
By Bloomberg
Oil headed for a fourth weekly gain as Saudi Arabia said prices are steadying amid strong global demand.
Futures were little changed in New York and poised for a 3.4 percent advance for the week. Oil is recovering from a temporary decline, said Ibrahim al-Muhanna, an adviser to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, according to the text of a speech he gave in Riyadh on Thursday. The kingdom announced Sunday it raised pricing for crude shipments to Asia in May, signaling improving demand in the country’s biggest market.
Oil is still down 4.7 percent this year amid speculation a global glut that cut prices by almost half in 2014 will persist. U.S. crude stockpiles rose the most in 14 years last week, expanding inventories further from a record, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
West Texas Intermediate for May delivery was at $50.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 1 cent at 9:53 a.m. Sydney time. The contract gained 37 cents to $50.79 on Thursday. The volume of all futures traded was 94 percent below the 100-day average.
Brent for May settlement climbed $1.02, or 1.8 percent, to $56.57 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Thursday. The European benchmark crude ended the session at a premium of $5.78 to WTI.
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