Oil prices are falling as investors cash in on their gains. As traders booked profits from the rally that occurred the previous week and settled down to wait for the market forecasts due this week from OPEC and the International Energy Agency, the price of crude oil started the week on a downward trend.
When this article was written, the price of a barrel of Brent crude was hovering just above $84.50. In contrast, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate had fallen below $80 and was traded for approximately $79.30.
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The price of crude oil experienced its most significant weekly increase since October of last year last week. This was mainly due to expectations of a demand rebound in China following the country’s reversal of its zero-Covid policy, which had stifled industrial activity and resulted in oil demand for the past three years.
Brent crude and WTI crude added more than 8 percent in value over the week, with Brent crude ending the week at over $85 per barrel and WTI crude ending the week at close to $80 per barrel.
OPEC is scheduled to release its most recent Monthly Oil Market Report tomorrow. Traders are waiting to see if the cartel has revised its oil demand expectations for the year based on the report it published the previous month.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projected in December that this year’s oil demand growth would be 2.2 million barrels per day (BPD), a decrease from the 2.5 million BPD growth predicted for 2018. It was anticipated that growth in demand from OECD countries would be a moderate 300,000 BPD, while growth in non-OECD countries would be 1.9 million BPD. According to the OPEC December Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR), non-OPEC supply was also expected to increase by 1.9 million BPD this year.
“Now that China is opening up, we hope to see a pickup in demand, and when we meet, we will analyze that as we have in the past.” “We always take the decision that serves the balancing of the market,” the oil minister for the United Arab Emirates, Suhail al-Mazrouei, said on the sidelines of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum, which took place in Abu Dhabi over the past weekend.
