Crude prices, Monday, hit USD82 dpb in the early hours before declining slightly. The early Monday prices are the peak from the recovery that has spanned over two weeks enabled by the consistent escalation of conflict in the Middle East leading U.S. crude benchmark to gain well over 2%.
At 11:57 a.m. ET on Monday, WTI was trading up 2.26% at $78.58 per barrel, while Brent crude was trading up 1.81% at $81.10, according to Oilprice.com.
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As at the time of this report, Tuesday, Brent Crude (September Contract) was trading at USD81.87 pb after it lost 0.49% from USD82.18 pb. Brent consistently rose from USD76.17 pb on 7th of March gaining a whopping 7.89% within a week.
West Texas Intermediate (September Contract) is currently selling at USD78.53 pb having lost 1.15% from the USD79.66 pb. WTI Crude recorded biggest gain of the week of 8.44% rising from 78.93 as at 7th March.
OPEC, Monday, revised downward global oil demand growth forecast for 2024 to 1.78 million barrels per day, from 1.85 million bpd previously projected. OPEC now expects global oil demand growth for this year to average 104.32 million bpd. For 2025, OPEC has also lowered its projections to 2.11 million bpd, down from 2.25 million bpd in its previous report.
