New York West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures closed higher on Thursday (March 30), supported by U.S. crude inventories plunging to a two-year low, as well as Iraqi news halts some oil exports from Kurdistan These factors led investors to expect that the global oil market will face tight supply conditions.
- The WTI crude oil contract is delivered in May. It was up $1.40, or 1.92%, at $74.37/barrel.
- The Brent crude oil contract (BRENT) is delivered in May. It was up 99 cents, or 1.26%, at $79.27 a barrel.
Oil markets continued to benefit from Iraq’s ban on exports of around 450,000 barrels per day of oil from Kurdistan via Turkey. After an arbitration court affirmed that oil exports needed approval from the Iraqi government, Kurdistan is an autonomous region located in northern Iraq.
The market was also supported by a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which said U.S. crude inventories fell 7.4 million barrels last week. It hit a two-year low and gasoline inventories fell by 2.9 million barrels.
Investors keep an eye on the committee meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies. or OPEC Plus on April 3, while the news source revealed that OPEC+ is likely to maintain its oil production policy by cutting output by 2 million barrels per day until the end of 2023 despite the recent banking crisis.
By InfoQuest News Agency (31 Mar. ’23)
Tags: WTI oil, crude oil, oil price