International oil prices rose to a two-month high on the 12th (local time) as supply continues to be tight due to the COVID-19 Omicron strain, despite the increase in demand for crude oil this year.
In particular, Brent crude oil is traded in the mid-80s, while West Texas crude oil (WTI) also easily exceeded $80 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) closed at $82.64 on the same day, rising $1.42 and 1.75 percent per barrel. WTI was $76.08 per barrel based on the closing price on the 3rd (local time) of the first trading day of this year, but jumped $6.56 in 10 days. Compared to $75.21 per barrel at the end of last year, it rose more than 9%.
Compared to the time when oil prices fell in December last year, it is about $17 per barrel compared to $65.57 per barrel as of December 1st. In particular, the closing price on this day is the highest since $84.15 per barrel at the closing price on November 9 last year.
Brent crude oil also rose more than 1% on the same day. Brent crude oil rose 95 cents per barrel and 1.13 percent from the previous trading day, staying at $84.67 per barrel. Brent crude oil also rose about 8.5 percent this year. It closed at more than $80 for 10 consecutive trading days after hitting $78.98 at the closing price on the 3rd, the first trading day in 2022.
Brent crude oil, which fell to $69.67 a barrel as of December 2 last year, also rose about $15 over 40 days. As a result, Brent crude also hit a two-month high after hitting $84.78 a barrel in September last year.
In response, Reuters reported on the 12th that oil prices rose as U.S. crude oil inventories hit their lowest level since 2018 and the dollar weakened. In particular, it was evaluated that the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron mutation led to a tight supply of crude oil, leading to a rise in prices.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Service, U.S. crude oil inventories fell about 4.6 million barrels from the previous week to 413.3 million barrels last week. This is a greater decrease than the initial forecast.
According to Reuters, market experts predicted a 1.9 million barrel drop in a Reuters survey. It is also a larger drop than the Wall Street Journal’s forecast of 2.1 million barrels of crude oil inventory decline.
Meanwhile, demand is expected to increase this year, but crude oil supply is still slow. Reuters assessed that OPEC and others are still restricting supply and that there are moves to increase production, but supply is still insufficient due to technical problems.