Crude oil prices increased for the third consecutive day on Thursday as the OPEC+ appears ready to stick with earlier plans to slightly increase oil production from May 1.
At 1300 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, was trading at $68.80 a barrel after gaining 2.27 percent. Likewise, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 2.24 percent to reach $65.29 a barrel. The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $63.91 a barrel with 1.09 percent increase, Arab Light was available at $65.58 a barrel with 0.91 percent increase while price of Russian Sokol increased 0.23 percent to reach $65.49 a barrel.
Goldman Sachs expects global oil demand to realise the biggest jump ever over the next six months, keeping its bullish forecasts for oil prices this summer. The investment bank said that higher demand for travel and acceleration of vaccinations in Europe are set to result in “the biggest jump in oil demand ever, a 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) rise over the next six months,” Reuters quoted Goldman Sachs as saying in a note to clients.
Goldman Sachs continues to see oil rising to $80 per barrel this summer and says that “The magnitude of the coming change in the volume of demand – a change which supply cannot match – must not be understated,” as carried by FXStreet.