Amid Supply Constraints, Crude Oil Hits $77

The price of the international crude oil benchmark, Brent, rose on Thursday amid supply constraints and a drop in United States oil reserves.

As of 9:16pm Nigerian time on Thursday, Brent traded at $77.19 after it rose by 1.13 per cent while the US West Texas Intermediate rose by 1.33 per cent to trade at $&3.19 per barrel, according to Oilprice.com.

S&P Global Platts reported that US commercial crude stocks fell to its lowest since October 5, 2018 by 3.48 million barrels to 413.98 million barrels according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

Senior market analyst at OANDA, Edward Moya, was quoted as saying by Platts, “Crude prices rallied after US stockpiles tumbled to the lowest levels since October 2018.”

Moya explained that oil market fundamentals were turning bullish as concerns of an economic slowdown in China eased and amid forecasts that supply shortages for natural gas could lead to increased demand for oil.

ANZ Research analysts similarly noted, according to the report, that crude oil prices had risen as supply availability was back in focus, with US oil inventories falling for the seventh consecutive week.

Oilprice.com also reported that Indian oil imports rose in August while its oil production dropped.

Indian government data as quoted by Economic Times India stated that the country’s oil imports jumped by 23 per cent to 4.2 million barrels per day as the country imported more from the US and Latin American countries.

India is Nigeria’s largest importer of crude oil, according to trade data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.