Brent Crude trades above $83.5/Bbl
Brent Crude trades above $83.5/Bbl
Brent crude futures gained above $83.5 per barrel on Monday, as OPEC+ kept its reins on oil supply despite calls for increased output, with State-owned Saudi Aramco raising its December official selling price for Arab light crude to $2.7 a barrel, up by $1.4 from this month.
The cartel’s continued supply curbs have resulted to at least a 60% rise in oil prices since the start of the year.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed congressional passage of a long-delayed $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which could boost economic growth and demand for fuel. read more
Further price support has also come from a decision last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, a group collecticely known as OPEC+, not to speed up their planned production increases.
Biden had called on OPEC+ to produce more crude to cool the market and on Saturday said his administration had “other tools” to deal with high oil prices. read more
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Monday said that Washington was weighing its options to address high gasoline and heating prices in the United States, which some analysts say could involve tapping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Adding to bullish sentiment, China’s export growth slowed in October but beat forecasts, buoyed by rising global demand ahead of the winter holiday season and improvements in coronavirus-hit supply chains.
Saudi Arabia on Friday raised the price of its benchmark crude for customers in Asia in December, exceeding market
