ISLAMABAD
Oil prices surged for the second straight day on Friday after falling around 9 percent during the first three days of this week.
As of 1115 hours GMT, the price of Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, climbed by $1.82 (+2.51 percent) to $74.32. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the main oil benchmark for North America, went up by $1.83 a barrel (+2.67 percent) to $70.39.
The price for Opec Basket took a massive dive from $80.03 to $73.75, showing a decrease of $6.28 (-7.85 percent). The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of Saharan Blend, Girassol, Djeno, Zafiro, Rabi Light, Iran Heavy, Basra Light, Kuwait Export, Es Sider, Bonny Light, Arab Light, Murban and Merey.
The price of Russian Sokol slipped to $69.61 a barrel with a 1.04 percent decrease and Arab Light prices witnessed a decrease of 1.16 percent to reach $80.84 a barrel.
Oil futures posted two consecutive weekly declines before this week as a crisis at regional banks in the US led to the collapse of First Republic Bank, the second-largest failure in the US since the 2008 global financial crisis. The increase in oil prices during the last two working days of this week are not enough to keep crude from its third consecutive week of closing at a loss as the US economy drags markets down and demand from China remains elusive. Overall, the first four days of the week saw Brent on a major losing streak of 8.5 percent, while WTI lost over 10 percent for the week.
The crude oil prices continued lower after the Energy Information Administration reported yet another weekly inventory draw on crude oil inventories. The EIA estimated inventories had shed 1.3 million barrels in the period, which compares with a draw of 5.1 million barrels for the previous week. Oil markets will now be looking at next week’s US crude oil inventory data, which, many analysts anticipated, will report the third drawdown in a row, potentially boosting oil prices or helping to staunch the losses.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has cut the official selling price for its Arab Light crude oil to Asia. That makes the Arab Light grade price a premium of $2.55 per barrel compared to the Oman/Dubai average. The cut, to go into effect next month, represents a $0.25 per barrel cut month over month. The move shows an expected weakness in Asian demand for Middle Eastern crude oil.
