AlwaysFree: Oil Prices Climbed on Optimism on Restarting Economy

On Tuesday, oil prices climbed on the growing optimism over the restarting economies all over the world.

Brent crude oil futures edged up by 1.4% or 56 cents to USD41.36/barrel after falling by USD1.50 on Monday. US WTI crude oil futures also rose by 1.3% or 50 cents to USD38.69/barrel at 01.34 GMT after losing USD1.36 on Monday.

On Monday, the US city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, New York City started to reopen and signaling that the country might return to the activities pre-outbreak which could push the return of fuel demand.

Further supporting the prices today is the preliminary Reuters poll which expected the US crude oil inventories to drop by 1.5 million barrels in the week ended June 5. Gasoline stockpiles are also being forecast to go down by 100,000 barrels. 

However, distillate stocks including diesel and heating oil to soar by 2.9 million barrels.

Meanwhile, there are some factors capping the gain in the day. Some Middle East producers had said they do not plan to continue over complying on the OPEC+ output cut pact, which means supply might still increase by 1.18 million bpd in the market after June.

Libya will also fill more oil to the market as the country has resumed production.

Economist Lachlan Shaw of the National Australia Bank commented, “Demand is recovering gradually but steadily. However, there would still be massive excess supply.”

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