Due to limited U.S. supply and forecasts of high fuel demand in China for the Golden Week vacation, oil prices increased slightly on Friday and were on track to rise 2% for the week.
Prior to the contract’s expiration later in the day, front-month Brent November futures were up 42 cents, or 0.44%, to $95.80 per barrel at 0943 GMT. At $93.43 per barrel, the more liquid Brent December contract was up 33 cents, or 0.35%.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for the United States increased by 51 cents or 0.56% to $92.22 a barrel.
On Thursday, Brent futures reached an intraday high of $97.69 per barrel, breaking their previous record set in November 2022. WTI, meanwhile, reached $95.03 a barrel, its highest intra-day price since August of last year.
With storage at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for U.S. oil futures, already at its lowest level since July 2022, a backdrop of constrained supply in the U.S. supported prices further.
According to Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, “any further decline would threaten to bring them down to a critical level, which could make further withdrawals difficult.”
As the week-long Golden Week vacation got underway on Friday, China’s petroleum demand was expected to increase.
Chinese oil demand is being boosted by an increase in overseas travel over the Golden Week holiday, according to ANZ analysts’ client note.
Data from flying app Umetrip shows that the average number of daily flights booked is a fifth more than during Golden Week in 2019, prior to COVID, suggesting that domestic travel will also help to increase demand.
The most recent Eurostat flash report revealed that inflation in the euro zone dropped to a two-year low of 4.3% in September, indicating that the European Central Bank’s policy of gradual interest rate increases was having an impact.
If the present export restriction fails to lower domestic costs, Russia is considering implementing gasoline export limitations.
Increases in price must stop. Alexander Novak, deputy prime minister, indicated that strong regulatory measures would be implemented if the situation did not alter.