Crude rises from year lows on hopes about Chinese demand and oil tanker delays

The Petroleum It rose on Thursday after four sessions of decline, driven by hopes that the relaxation of measures against Covid-19 in China will revive demand and signs that some tankers carrying Russian crude suffered delays after the entry into force of a G7 price cap.

China on Wednesday announced the most sweeping changes to its strict anti-COVID regime since the pandemic began, as at least 20 oil tankers suffered delays crossing into the Mediterranean from Russia’s Black Sea ports.

At 10:49 GMT, crude Brent was up 56 cents, or 0.7%, at $77.72 a barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate in the United States (WTI) it earned 63 cents, or 0.87%, to settle at $72.64.

Naeem Aslam, an analyst at Avatrade, said that “prices are oversold due to the intense sell-off of the past few days. However, the price action is not yet showing a strong bullish bias.”

Both Brent and WTI hit 2022 lows on Wednesday, erasing all gains made after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the worst global energy supply crisis in decades and sent oil near its all-time high of $147.

Western officials were in talks with their Turkish counterparts to resolve the tanker queues, a British Treasury official said on Wednesday, after the G7 and the European Union put in place new restrictions on Russian oil exports on December 5. .

The tails suggest that “available supply from the Black Sea has already been affected by the punitive measure,” said Tamas Varga of the PVM brokerage. “In a healthy economic climate, such an event would be tantamount to kicking off the race back to $100.”