Oil Price Up Amid High U.S. Demand and OPEC Supplies

Oil prices increased on Thursday because of the narrowing of the U.S. market as well as the large supply from OPEC producers that have a greater impact in the overall sentiment. The benchmark for Brent crude increased by 20 cents per barrel at $52.56 while the U.S. light crude up by 20 cents at $49.79. A high demand in the U.S. has pushed the price higher. Statistically, the recorded gasoline demand was 9.84 million barrels per day (bpd) for last week and a decline in commercial crude inventories worth 1.5 million barrels to 481.9 million barrels which is much lower than the barrels recorded last year.

Members of OPEC  and other producers such as Russia pledged to limit the output by 1.8 million bpd until March next year to support price and lower inventories. Yet the organization reached a record high of 33 million since July which is higher by 90,000 bpd from the previous month according to the Reuters survey.

It seems that the oil industry in this era has become accustomed to low prices and function in levels that would have been impossible before as reflected in the field.