The cost of February futures for Brent at London’s ICE Futures Exchange is $82.09 per barrel by 7:20 a.m. (KSC), down $0.61 (0.74%) from the close of the previous session. At the close of trading on Wednesday these contracts rose by $2.02 (2.6%) to $82.7 a barrel.
The price of WTI futures for January at electronic trades of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) makes $76.52 per barrel by that time, which is $0.76 (0.98%) lower than the final value of the previous session. The contract rose by $1.89 (2.5%) to $77.28 per barrel at the end of last session.
On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency raised its estimate for oil demand growth in 2022 by 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd. The 2023 demand growth forecast was also raised by 100k bpd to 1.7 million bpd. This gave a boost to the market, writes Bloomberg.
The agency also noted that oil demand remains relatively robust, especially in non-OECD countries.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve expectedly raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 4.25-4.5% per year. Meanwhile, the U.S. central bank said in a statement that it plans to keep raising rates so that monetary policy becomes restrictive enough to return inflation to the 2% target. Investors are concerned that tight monetary policy could cause an economic slowdown and, as a result, a drop in demand for oil.
U.S. oil inventories rose 10.23 million barrels to 424.13 million barrels last week, according to a weekly report from the U.S. Energy Department. Experts polled by Bloomberg expected a 3.5 million barrel drop in oil reserves.
