New York (awp/afp) – Oil prices closed with a jump of more than 6% on Tuesday, galvanized by the easing of anti-Covid measures in China, which should support demand, while OPEC warns that it will not be able to compensate for the Russian offer.
North Sea Brent, Europe’s crude benchmark, rose 6.25% to $104.64 a barrel, while US WTI climbed 6.69%, back above the 100 mark. dollars for the first time in a week, at $100.60.
“The market has been elated that the city of Shanghai is sort of on its way to being operational again. This will end a strong destruction of oil demand,” Robert told AFP. Yawger of Mizuho USA who estimates that the confinements in the Chinese economic capital remove one million barrels of crude per day from global demand.
Shanghai on Monday eased health restrictions in certain neighborhoods following growing dissatisfaction with the very strict confinement which locked 25 million inhabitants in their homes.
This has eased “investor nervousness about the possibility of a slowdown in demand from the world’s second-largest economy,” said Victoria Scholar, an analyst at Interactive Investor.
“I think the market has rebounded far too optimistically on this point,” said Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI Asset Management.
“This change in policy is due to food shortages in large areas and lack of couriers to deliver the food, (…) this is in no way a policy reversal of zero Covid “, he asserts.
In addition, the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammed Barkindo, warned the European Union on Monday that the 7 million barrels per day of Russian exports which would be lost because of the sanctions could not not be fully replaced, reports the financial press.
What maintain fears about the supply of black gold in an already tight market.
“OPEC’s monthly report implies that the organization cannot make up for barrels that have not been produced by Russia,” Yawger said, adding that Russian crude production fell by 530,000 barrels per year. day in the last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his call for Westerners to impose “a total embargo on Russian hydrocarbons”.
dpa/al