By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 4th Jan, 2022.
Brent oil futures prices for March delivery settled $1.2 or 1.54 pct up to $78.98 a barrel on London based ICE futures Europe exchange. WTI Feb futures prices rose 87 cents or 1.16% to close at $76.08 a barrel on NYMEX last night. In Shanghai, Crude oil main contract futures prices remained unchanged at 499 Yuan/bbl while MCX crude oil front month futures prices inched up Rs.39 or 0.69 pct to close at Rs.5664 a barrel yesterday. Brent futures traded at a premium of $2.9 a barrel over WTI during yesterday's session.
The world crude oil price index curves moved up yesterday after demonstrating downside momentum in the early trade. Both the benchmark prices got support from expected demand growth to 2019 levels , Strong economy and supply disruptions even though rising omicron cases disrupted travel that dampened jet fuel demand across the globe. On the supply side, JTC elected Mr.Haitham al-Ghais from Kuwait as new secretary-general of OPEC and he will resume office from Aug 1st. OPEC+ monthly meeting is scheduled today and the group is expected to take decision to keep the existing supply policy unchanged. There is supply cut of 2,00,000 barrels per day for a week from Libya due to outage, That supported oil complex. Turning to technicals, Money mangers increased their net length in Brent oil futures and options by 33,098 contracts to 187,654 in the week ending Dec, 28th. Long only positions rose by 21288 and short-only positions fell by 11,810 as per data. API numbers are awaited later today. Today, Asian markets opened with positive note and any surprises from OPEC+ meet will spur some volatility during the session.
Good day to all.
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