- West Texas Intermediate hovered between $82-$83/Bbl Thursday morning after settling at a two-month high of $82.64/Bbl yesterday
- Demand has been resilient in the face of the Omicron variant while global oil supply has come under pressure
- U.S. stockpiles fell last week, adding to an increasingly tight supply picture
- The International Energy Agency says demand is stronger than expected (Bloomberg)
- The U.S. government EIA’s latest outlook showed that global inventories are set to decline this quarter
- “Market sentiment has been positive as Omicron concerns abate and the expectation of continued dynamic development,” said Carsten Fritsch an analyst at Commerzbank AG
- The EIA reported U.S. crude stockpiles sank to the lowest since 2018 for the week ended January 7
- Oil inventories fell 4.55 MMBbl as analysts were expecting a decline closer to 2 MMBbl
- Stocks at the Cushing storage hub dropped by 2.5 MMBbl to 34.8 MMBbl
- U.S. crude output fell by 100 MBbl/d during the week to 11.7 MMBbl/d