By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 13th Dec, 2022.
Brent oil futures prices for Feb delivery rose $1.89 or 2.48 pct to settle at $77.99 a barrel on London based ICE futures Europe exchange while WTI Jan futures prices moved $2.15 or 3.03 pct up to close at $73.17 a barrel on NYMEX last night. In Shanghai, Crude oil main contract futures prices slipped 0.4 Yuan to 507.2 Yuan/bbl where as MCX crude oil front month futures prices surged Rs.209 or 3.56 pct to settle at Rs.6085 a barrel yesterday. Brent premium over WTI narrowed down to $4.82 a barrel during the session.
The world crude oil price index curves tilted towards bullishness yesterday after traders shifted focus on supply glitches, expected dip in U.S crude stocks and china demand coming back. Both the benchmarks logged in weekly loss after falling around 9 pct last week on gloomy economic outlook amid recession fears that may deter oil demand. Yesterday, Markets reacted as the TC Energy Corp's Canada-U.S keystone crude oil pipeline repairs appears to be delayed upping the possibility of further stocks draws at Cushing. On the other hand, Russia said that it will stop supplies to those countries that imposes a price cap on Russian exports. Turning to technicals, Portfolio investors were heavy sellers of petroleum for the fourth week running as the smooth introduction of the Russia price cap brought the weakness of the economy and oil demand into sharper focus. Hedge funds and other money mangers sold the equivalent of 30 million barrels in the six most important petroleum – related futures and options contracts over the seven days ending on Dec 6.
Analysts are in the opinion that oil markets are very likely to be volatile in the short term due to prevailed uncertainity over economic indicators, Russia's supplies and China's demand outlook. Today, Asian markets are trading in green at the time of reporting, continuing previous session gains. API numbers are due later today followed by EIA confirmations. Monthly reports are awaited this week.
Good day to all.
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