ShareAramco, the world’s largest oil producer, is pressing ahead with a plan to pay $75 billion in dividends this year.
Oil edged higher following the biggest daily advance in a week as Saudi Aramco’s upbeat assessment of the crude market and signs the spread of the coronavirus in the US is decelerating aided sentiment. West Texas Intermediate crude is testing the upper limit of the $40 to $42 a barrel range it’s been in for the past month, with the return of some OPEC+ barrels having little market impact so far. That’s even as the pandemic is still surging or staging a comeback in many parts of the world. In another potential tailwind for oil, analysts are forecasting a drop in American crude stockpiles, which would be the third straight weekly decline.