In addition to the US fiscal stimulus agreement and strong Asian demand, oil hit a nine-month high on Thursday after official data showed a decline in U.S. crude inventories last week.
Brent crude futures rose 45 cents, or 0.9%, to $51.53 a barrel at 0436 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose by 46 cents, or nearly 1%, to $48.28 a barrel.
Both benchmarks hit their highest since early March.
US oil stocks have withdrawn more than expected, three of the refineries in India are operating at almost 100% capacity, indicating that demand for crude oil is still strong. It seems that the low US dollar, which contributes to commodity activity, will continue to provide more monetary and financial incentives.
The Energy Information Administration said that US crude inventories fell 3.1 million barrels in the week of December 11, despite analysts’ expectations of a 1.9 million barrel decline.
By the way, also the positive speeches of US Democrats and Republicans that they are approaching on an agreement on a $ 900 billion virus aid spending package increases the oil prices.
In addition to the above for the last full trading week of 2020, we can say that energy traders are focusing more on the light at the end of the dark COVID-19 tunnel and crude oil prices are on the rise as Asian demand remains strong.
