Oil prices rise on expectations that China will relax its restrictions against Covid

The Petroleum rose this Tuesday close to closing on hopes that China’s strict Covid-19 controls will be relaxed, but fears that the OPEC+ keep your production unchanged at your next limited profit meeting.

Brent crude futures were up 41 cents at $83.60 a barrel. Contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) from the United States gained $1.01, or 1.3%, to $78.25 a barrel.

Chinese health authorities said the country plans to speed up Covid-19 vaccination for the elderly, aiming to overcome a key hurdle in efforts to ease unpopular “zero-COVID” restrictions.

The prospect of a return to normality, in an economy that is the world’s largest oil importer, was enough for oil prices to jump in the first significant rebound in the last two weeks,” said ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista. .

Street protests in cities across China over the weekend they took aim at President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy and have been the biggest challenge in his political career, Chinese analysts said.

The weakness of the US dollar, which often trades inversely against oil, also helped boost crude prices.

The dollar index has fallen to 106.65 from a 20-year high as investors expect rates to peak early next year and inflation pressures to ease.

“(The) strong rally is being helped by the weakening US dollar and the need to price in some loss of Russian crude availability from the start of sanctions scheduled for next week,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch and Associates.

Los oil pricesHowever, they were hurt by concerns that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, will not adjust their production plans at their next meeting on December 4.

five sources of OPEC+ said OPEC+ was likely to keep its production policy unchanged at their meeting on Sunday, while two others said a further cut was also likely to be considered.

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