Oil prices increased on Friday as renewed global supply concerns stemmed from Russia’s fuel export embargo, offsetting concerns that slowing economies and high-interest rates will crimp demand.
Brent futures were up 78 cents, or 0.84%, to $94.08 a barrel at 1443 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures were up $1.02, or 1.14%, to $90.65 a barrel.
Both benchmarks were basically steady for the week after gaining more than 10% in the previous three weeks due to concerns over global supply.
Russia’s Transneft suspended diesel deliveries to the crucial Baltic and Black Sea terminals of Primorsk and Novorossiysk on Friday, according to Russian news outlet Tass.
Russia has temporarily prohibited gasoline and diesel exports to all countries outside a circle of four ex-Soviet states with immediate effect in order to stabilize the domestic fuel market, the government said on Thursday, without specifying an end date.
The restriction will” bring new query into a formerly tight global refined product force picture and the prospect that the impacted countries will be seeking to bid up ladings from necessary suppliers,” according to a note from RBC. On Friday, Russian diesel and commercial gasoline prices dropped by nearly 10, singly, on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. still, macroeconomic challenges continue to dampen the outlook for oil painting demand. oil painting oil prices are” most likely to be affected in the short term by signals on the demand side,” Commerzbank judges wrote in a report. According to Purchasing Directors’ Index( PMI) statistics issued on Friday, the third quarter of the euro zone’s economy is presumably going to be weaker than the alternate.
Additional PMI figures reveal that the UK economy contracted more in September compared to August.
The Federal Reserve of the United States kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but tightened its hawkish tone, assuaging fears that higher rates would impede economic growth.
“Given the current level of monetary policy restraint,” Fed Governor Michelle Bowman stated on Friday, “progress on inflation is likely to be slow.” “Energy prices may rise further, reversing some of the progress we’ve made,” she warned.
According to IIR Energy, offline refinery capacity in the United States is likely to exceed 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) this week, up from 800,000 bpd last week.
