Oil heads for 2% weekly gain on tight U.S. supply, China demand
By Robert Harvey
LONDON (Reuters) — Oil prices edged higher on Friday, and were headed for a gain of 2% for the week, driven by tight U.S. supply and expectations of strong fuel demand in China during the Golden Week holiday.
Front-month Brent November futures were up 42 cents, or 0.44%, to $95.80 per barrel at 0943 GMT, ahead of the contract's expiry later in the day. The more-liquid Brent December contract was up 33 cents, or 0.35%, at $93.43 per barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 51 cents, or 0.56%, to $92.22 per barrel.
Brent futures touched their highest since November 2022 on Thursday, hitting an intra-day peak of $97.69 a barrel. Meanwhile, WTI hit its highest intra-day price since August last year at $95.03 a barrel.
A backdrop of tight supplies in the U.S. provided further price support, with storage at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for U.S. crude futures, already at its lowest since July 2022. [EIA/S]
«Any additional decline would threaten to bring them down to a critical level, which could make further withdrawals difficult,» said Commerzbank (ETR:CBKG) analyst Carsten Fritsch.
China's fuel demand was set to firm as the week-long Golden Week holiday began on Friday.
"(An) increase in international travel during the Golden Week holiday is boosting Chinese oil demand," ANZ analysts said in a client note.
Domestic travel is also expected to boost demand, with data from flight app Umetrip showing the average number of daily flights booked is a fifth higher than for Golden Week in 2019, before COVID.
Meanwhile, inflation in the euro zone fell to a two-year low of 4.3% in September, the latest Eurostat flash reading showed, suggesting the European Central Bank's policy of steady
Read more on investing.com
