Oil Snaps 2-Day Slide as Supply Issues Back in Focus
2022.04.21 22:45
By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com — Oil prices rose 2% Thursday as those who sold crude down in the past two sessions covered their shorts amid a return of the supply issues that had fueled much of this year’s energy rally.
Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, settled up $1.53, or 1.4%, at $108.33 per barrel.
Brent had lost almost 6% over two previous sessions largely due IMF downgrades of 2022/23 global economic growth and the scare over new Covid deaths in China, the world’s second largest consumer of oil.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, the benchmark for U.S. crude, gained $1.60, or 1.6%, to settle at $103.79 on Thursday.
WTI lost a net of more than 5% over the past two sessions, despite closing up in the previous session. Prior to Wednesday’s rebound, it fell below key $100 support to a session low of $99.89.
Thursday’s higher close in Brent and WTI came as Germany suggested it will halve its Russian oil imports by the summer and end them by the end of the year.
Oil traders have disputed for weeks that Berlin and the rest of the EU will be able to disengage with Russia as simply as it seems despite the West’s stand that the action is appropriate and in line with its sanctions against Moscow for the war in Ukraine.
“Given how big a market (Germany) is for Russia, accounting for roughly half its exports will come as a real blow” to the supply-demand situation in oil, said Craig Erlam, analyst at online trading platform OANDA. “Oil prices are creeping higher again but remain pretty much in the middle of the range they’ve traded within for the last month.”
Oil’s narrative was also made more bullish by Libya, which said Wednesday that it was losing more than 550,000 barrels per day of oil output due to blockades at major fields and export terminals.
The North African country is one of the main contributors to the output of OPEC+, the global oil producing alliance.
Made up of 23 countries and officially led by Saudi Arabia, with assistance from Russia, OPEC+ has struggled to meet its output targets for months now due to under-investment in global oil fields during the height of the coronavirus outbreak. The situation has gotten only worse since the start of the Feb. 24 Ukraine war and the consequent sanctions on Russia.
