Brent crude futures continued their upward trend in European morning trading Jan. 6, moving further above the $80/b mark not seen since late November as the wider oil complex remained supported by lower US crude stocks, while unrest continued to rock oil producer Kazakhstan.
At 1259 GMT, March ICE Brent crude futures were up $1.20/b at $82/b, while February NYMEX WTI futures were $1.26/b higher at $79.11/b. The rises saw crude claw back late November’s slump in crude and refined products prices that followed news of the discovery of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly US inventory report Jan. 5 revealed that while gasoline stocks surged, commercial crude oil stocks fell 2.14 million barrels week on week to 417.85 million barrels, a 15-week low, largely driven by a drop in […]