Oil Prices Rise as Geopolitical Tensions Outweigh US Stockpiles
Oil prices rose on Thursday as geopolitical concerns over rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine outweighed the impact of a larger-than-expected build in US crude inventories.
Brent crude futures rose 60 cents, or 0.82%, to $72.81 by 0734 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 64 cents, or 0.93%, to $69.39.
Ukraine fired a series of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at Russia on Wednesday, the latest Western weapons authorized for use on Russian targets, a day after firing US ATACMS missiles.
Moscow says using Western weapons to attack Russian territory far from its borders would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says that to defend itself, it must be able to strike Russian rear bases used to support Moscow’s invasion, which entered its 1,000th day this week.
"For oil, the risk is if Ukraine targets Russian energy infrastructure, while the other risk is uncertainty about how Russia will respond to such an attack," ING analysts said in a note.
JPMorgan analysts added that oil consumption recovered in the past week due to better travel demand in the U.S. and India, while the latter also showed a significant improvement in industrial demand.
Global oil demand is estimated to have reached 103.6 million barrels per day (bpd) during the first 19 days of November, up 1.7 million bpd year-on-year, the analysts said in a note.
Both Brent and WTI have gained more than 3% so far this week.
Source: Investing.com
