SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices rose for a fifth day on Thursday after a surprise fall in U.S. crude inventories gave further legs to a rally driven by optimism that vaccines will end the COVID-19 pandemic and revive demand for fuels.
Brent futures were up 26 cents, or 0.53%, at $48.87 a barrel by 0605 GMT, after rising around 1.6% in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate crude was up by 21 cents, or 0.46%, at $45.92 a barrel, having gained 1.8% on Wednesday.
Both benchmarks have risen about 9% this week, getting a boost after AstraZeneca said on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine could be up 90% effective, Reuters reported.
Encouraging vaccine results are “pushing aside concerns of enduring containment measures and prompting some follow-through buying from the speculative community,” Citigroup Global Markets said in a note.
Still, it warned that “a pullback cannot be ruled out amid less robust demand in the near term.”
U.S. oil stockpiles fell 754,000 barrels last week, data showed, while analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a 127,000-barrel rise. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for WTI, fell by 1.7 million barrels.
(Esta Media Network/Reuters)
