ALBAWABA - Oil prices rose at the beginning of Asian trading Thursday amid expectations of an increase in demand for fuel in the current year.
Brent crude futures rose by 0.7 percent to record $85.97 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose by 0.9 percent to record $79.32 a barrel.
The International Energy Agency expected on Wednesday that the demand for oil worldwide will rise by 2 million barrels per day in 2023 to reach its highest level ever, due to a high demand in China.
Brent crude futures rose 26 cents to $85.64 per barrel by 0131 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 34 cents to $78.93. #OilPrices #BrentCrude #ShareMarket #Stocks #StocksToWatchhttps://t.co/mKMEJN47AH
— Kalkine Media UK (@kalkine_uk) February 16, 2023
The agency stated that the global demand for oil will reach a record level of 101.9 million barrels per day in 2023.
According to the agency, Chinese demand will rise by 900,000 barrels per day, given that Beijing is moving towards reopening its economy for the first time since the beginning of COVID-19, after easing restrictions related to the pandemic.
The rise in oil prices ignored the large increase in U.S. crude inventories.
U.S. Energy Information Administration announced earlier that U.S. crude oil inventories jumped last week by 16.3 million barrels to 471.4 million barrels, the highest level in two year
