ISLAMABAD
Oil futures logged their fifth weekly gain in a row, powered by supply concerns in the coming months.
Both major global benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended the week higher by 4.84 percent and 4.55 percent, respectively. Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, rose to $84.99 from $81.07 a barrel, showing a gain of $3.92 on a week-on-week (WoW) basis. The WTI, the main oil benchmark for North America, edged up to $80.58 from $77.07 a barrel on a weekly basis, registering a weekly gain of $3.51.
Similarly, the price of Russian Sokol surged by $3.19 (+4.43 percent) to $75.21 from $72.02 on WoW basis. Following suit, Arab Light prices witnessed an increase of $3.32 (+3.95 percent) to reach $87.28 from $83.96 a barrel on a weekly basis. Similarly, the price for Opec Basket increased to $84.88 from $81.28 on a week-on-week basis, showing a gain of $3.60 (+4.43 percent).
Crude has posted five consecutive weekly gains on an expected tightening of supply because of output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies known as OPEC+, as well as some involuntary outages. Renewed bullishness on the outlook for Chinese demand and global growth also supported the fresh rise in prices. A pledge on Monday from China to boost policy support for the economy has spurred hopes of oil demand regeneration from the world’s largest crude importer. Also, coming into focus is an August 4 meeting of OPEC+ ministers to review the oil market.
