Oil prices rose on Friday for the third consecutive session and ended the week in the black for the first time in a month.
Market participants are trying to assess the impact of Hurricane Frances, which hit the Louisiana coast on Wednesday night. According to official figures, about 39% of US production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico were shut down due to the weather.
“The impact of the hurricane is still not fully known as the affected regions assess the damage to infrastructure,” said Schneider Electric analyst Robbie Fraser. Usually, offshore oil production recovers quite quickly after such events, the expert said, as quoted by Market Watch.
The cost of November futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 8:25 a.m. is $72.43 per barrel, which is $0.48 (0.67%) higher than at the close of the previous trading. On Thursday, these contracts rose by $1.36 (1.9%) to $71.97 per barrel.
October futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased in price by $0.48 (0.7%) to $69.45 per barrel. As a result of the previous session, the cost of these contracts increased by $1.66 (2.5%) to $68.97 per barrel.
Since the beginning of this week, Brent has risen in price by 2%, WTI – by 2.6%.
The growth of the oil market is constrained by concerns about the prospects for global demand.
On Thursday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) lowered its estimate of global oil demand growth in 2024 by 67 thousand barrels per day compared to last year, to 903 thousand bpd from the previously expected 970 thousand bpd.
Commenting on the forecast of a slowdown in demand growth this year, analysts noted the adjustment of expectations for oil consumption in China. Now the IEA expects that oil demand in China will grow by only 180 thousand bpd in 2024, to 16.7 million bpd. At the same time, at the beginning of the year, this parameter was estimated at 700 thousand bpd, and last month – about 300 thousand bpd.
