Oil is hopeful that demand for crude oil will rise while supply cuts in Libya and Nigeria and US inflation fall. Prices rose on Friday to achieve their third consecutive weekly gain for the first time since April.
Brent crude futures rose 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $81.41 a barrel as of 0242 GMT. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $76.98.
Both benchmark oil prices, which have risen nearly 9% this month, are on their way higher for the fourth consecutive session.
On Thursday, some oil fields in Libya were closed due to events that broke out as a local tribe protested the kidnapping of a former minister. It is said that the protests in Libya could take more than 250,000 barrels of oil a day from the market.
Separately, Shell has suspended shipments of Nigeria’s Forcados crude due to a potential leak at a terminal.
While Libya and Nigeria are dealing with setbacks, the expectations that the oil market will tighten as Russia’s crude oil exports fall, are increasing crude oil prices.
The world’s biggest oil exporters, Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed this month to deepen the oil cuts implemented since November last year, providing further support for crude oil prices.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday raised its oil demand forecast for 2023, adding that it expects demand to grow by 2.2% in 2024.
If the OPEC forecast comes true, oil prices can be expected to rise well above $100 per barrel.
The depreciation of the US dollar also contributes to commodity prices.
U.S. consumer prices rose moderately in June at the lowest annual rate of increase in more than two years as inflation continued to fall. Producer prices also barely rose in June, with annual growth the lowest in nearly three years.
Both indicators gave markets hope that the US Federal Reserve may be closer to ending its fastest monetary tightening campaign since the 1980s.
