Oil prices on Wednesday extended the previous day’s small gains after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week, surpassing concerns over rising COVID-19 cases and shipping restrictions in some countries.
Brent crude rose 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $75.07 a barrel as of 0423 GMT after rising on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, which was up 0.1% in the previous session, rose 46 cents, or 0.6%, to $73.44 a barrel.
As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps many countries, causing new lockdowns or movement restrictions from Australia to Portugal, hope for a broader recovery in fuel demand remains.
On the last day of June, Brent is going up another month, meaning the contract has risen in six of the last seven months. WTI crude has been trading similarly since November.
According to some sources, crude oil inventories in the US fell by 8.2 million barrels, gasoline inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels and distillate stocks increased by 428,000 barrels.
On Tuesday, Mohammad Barkindo, Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), supported broad recovery hopes for 2021.
As COVID-affected demand evaporates in 2020, OPEC+ and its allies have to decide on production policy, as they continue to release materials they hold to support prices. Ultimately, much more OPEC+ supply will be needed.
The goal should be to stabilize the oil market by 2022.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the U.S. to lift or waive all sanctions on Iran as agreed under a 2015 deal to prevent Tehran from developing atomic weapons.
In the indirect talks between the United States and Iran in recent weeks, no progress has yet been made to enable Washington to return to the deal and lift sanctions.
