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Despite a dip yesterday on weak economic data from the United States, crude oil prices were set to end the week with another gain, extending their latest upward streak to a full month.
Oil is now at the highest level since April with Brent crude adding some 9% over the past four weeks, according to Reuters, and West Texas Intermediate rising by $10 per barrel over the period.
“Market sentiment has been supported this week by strong mobility indicators and intensifying geopolitical tension in the Middle East,” ANZ analysts wrote in a note earlier today, as quoted by Reuters.
“There are promising signs of a gradual increase in summer travel, boosting oil demand in the US,” Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, told Bloomberg. She also noted that “tensions show little signs of de-escalating,” in the Middle East, keeping the war premium to oil in place.
Earlier in the week there was also a temporary hurricane season premium affecting prices as Hurricane Beryl barreled through the Caribbean but as the storm weakened, so did the premium. According to Bloomberg, however, the fear of a more active than usual hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico could continue supporting prices in the coming weeks.
In further support for oil prices, the latest jobless data out of the United States suggested the Fed might speed up its decision to start cutting interest rates after both first-time jobless claims and total unemployment numbers rose last week.
In further bullish news, there have been reports that Russian majors Lukoil and Rosneft would sharply reduce exports of crude this month after the end of refinery maintenance season. Reuters cited two unnamed sources as saying that the combined loadings of the two companies at the Black Sea port of Novorosiisk in July are set to be 220,000 bpd lower than they were in June.
