Global oil prices surged more than 3% during American trading on Thursday, rebounding after a two-day pause and nearing two-week highs amid optimism over US demand.
Recent data revealed that US crude inventories dropped to their lowest levels in seven months, while crude production slowed last month, coinciding with a strong recovery across various US economic sectors in the second quarter.
Prices
US crude increased by 3.4% today, reaching $76.87 per barrel, after hitting a session low of $74.08.
Brent crude climbed 2.7% to $79.53 per barrel, with a session low of $77.05.
On Wednesday, US crude declined by 1.8%, and Brent dropped 3%, as active profit-taking occurred following their two-week highs.
US Stocks
The Energy Information Administration reported a decrease of 0.8 million barrels in US crude inventories last week, bringing the total to 425.2 million barrels, falling short of analysts' expectations of a 2.7 million barrel drop.
Gasoline inventories declined by 2.2 million barrels to 218.4 million barrels, while distillate stocks decreased by 0.3 million barrels to 123.1 million barrels.
US Output
The EIA also reported that US crude production decreased by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week, bringing the total to 13.3 million bpd, down from the record high of 13.4 million bpd.
US Growth
Recent government data revealed that US GDP grew by 3.0% in the second quarter, surpassing the 2.8% forecast and increasing from 1.4% in the first quarter.
Libyan Output
Goldman Sachs anticipates that the ongoing production outage in Libya will be short-lived, with an estimated decline of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September and 200,000 bpd in October.
Libya typically produces 1.2 million bpd, with the majority of its output exported to global markets, particularly Europe.
The country remains divided between two rival governments in Tripoli and Benghazi. The Benghazi government halted production due to a dispute with the Tripoli government over leadership of the Central Bank.
Forces in eastern Libya, under the control of General Haftar, have the capacity to shut down significant portions of production and infrastructure in the region.
コメント