Oil prices climb on improving U.S. demand signs, OPEC agrees to meeting date
By Trend
Oil prices rose nearly 2% on Thursday on signs of improving demand in the United States, the world’s biggest crude consumer, and as OPEC and other producers finally agreed to a date for a meeting to discuss output cuts, reports Trend citing to Reuters.
Brent crude futures rose $1.13, or 1.8%, to $62.95 a barrel at 0611 GMT. They dropped 0.5% on Wednesday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 90 cents, or 1.7%, at $54.66 a barrel. WTI fell 0.26% in the previous session.
“It’s a very mixed bag of factors. In the U.S. (oil) demand is likely to be picking up into summer and the OPEC meeting looks like there’s going to be an extension or even more cuts is a possibility,” said Phin Zeibell, senior economist at National Australia Bank.
After swelling to near two-year highs, U.S. crude stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels last week, compared with analyst expectations for a draw of 1.1 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.
Refined products also posted surprise drawdowns due to a rise as gasoline demand ticked higher on a weekly basis and surged 6.5% from a year ago.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to meet on July 1, followed by a meeting with non-OPEC allies on July 2, after weeks of wrangling over dates.
OPEC and its allies will discuss whether to extend a deal on cutting 1.2 million barrels per day of production that runs out this month.
Momentum for an agreement appeared to be building as the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister told Al-Bayan newspaper that an extension is “logical and reasonable”.