Tokyo — Oil prices on Wednesday extended the previous day's small gains after an industry report showed US crude stockpiles fell last week, overriding trader and investor concerns about transportation curbs in some countries as Covid-19 cases surge.
While the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is taking hold in many countries, prompting new lockdowns or movement restrictions from Australia to Portugal, hopes of a broader recovery in demand for fuel remain intact.“Futures have been trading on a one-way ripper to the upside ever since the November 2 headline declaring a Covid-19 vaccine had been developed,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures, at Mizuho Securities.
Still, petrol inventories rose by 2.4-million barrels and distillate stocks were up by 428,000 barrels, the sources said. He laid out the forecast in a meeting of the joint technical committee of Opec+, an alliance made up of Opec members along with Russia and other producers.