ISLAMABAD
Crude oil prices buoyed by tight supply and expectations that rising Covid-19 cases will not derail global demand recovery.
As of 1340 hours GMT on Wednesday, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, gained $0.30 (+0.36 percent) to reach $84.02 a barrel, its highest settlement since early November.
On the other hand, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price reached $81.67 a barrel, up by $0.45 (+0.55 percent), which has been its highest price since mid-November.
The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $81.75 a barrel with a loss of 0.47 percent, Arab Light was available at $83.10 a barrel with an increase of 2.57 percent and the price of Russian Sokol jumped to $85.51 a barrel with an increase of 4.10 percent.
The Omicron variant of coronavirus hit the world in late November 2021. Though concerns about the hit to demand from the Omicron virus variant have eased and major economies continue to rebound from the pandemic, there’s still some uncertainty in Asia. Hong Kong announced tighter curbs on Wednesday. Earlier this week, the small Chinese city of Yuzhou went into lockdown after a few virus cases, while Xi’an has seen prolonged restrictions after a flare-up.
Brent crude oil rose by 50 percent in 2021 and has further rallied in 2022 as demand has recovered to near pre-pandemic levels with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (Opec+) slowly easing record output cuts made in 2020. Recent outages in Libya also supported crude oil prices.
Global oil and gas investments will increase more than 4.3 percent annually to reach $628 billion this year as the industry recovers from the pandemic and from the hurdles posed by the Omicron variant, according to a report by consultancy Rystad Energy. The increase in investment will largely be driven by a 14 percent year-on-year rise in upstream gas and liquefied natural gas investments in 2022, the independent energy research and data analytic company said.
Upstream gas and liquefied natural gas will be the fastest-growing segment this year, with investments rising to nearly $149bn, from $131bn in 2021. This falls short of the pre-pandemic total but investment in the sector is expected to surpass the 2019 levels of $168bn in two years, reaching $171bn in 2024, Rystad said.
Upstream oil investments are projected to rise 7 percent yearly to $307bn in 2022. However, the midstream and downstream investments will fall 6.7 percent on an annual basis to $172bn this year, said the report.
