Internationally traded Brent was at $44.79 a barrel, up 32 cents after failing to break resistance at $45 a barrel.
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USA crude futures have been under $50 longer now than they were during the height of the financial crisis in late 2008/2009. As the oil prices have an impact on worldwide economy, some volatility for the currencies, especially for the CAD is anticipated.
“Any surprising pick-up in refinery utilisation may drive the oil price higher in the short term”, ANZ bank said on Wednesday.
Oil prices turned away from slight gains on Tuesday as the risk premium following the Paris attacks and the French airstrikes in Syria faded and traders began to focus on the global oversupply in petroleum products again.
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The energy sector was the hardest hit, with crude oil weakening for a second week as the continued rise in inventories, especially in the USA, remained the focal point.
Meanwhile, prices of oil – which has been trading near six-year lows as a global glut takes its toll – also rose Monday, halting the recent declining trend.
World oil prices slid today on traders’ thoughts returned to the stubborn oil glut that has plagued the market for months. “But gains in demand have been outpaced by vigorous production from OPEC and resilient non-OPEC supply – with Russian output at a post-Soviet record and likely to remain robust in 2016 as well”.
Ang said Monday s uptick was also underpinned by bargain hunting after prices dropped to two-month lows Friday.
Official inventory data is due at 10:30 ET from the US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).
“Strikes against the Islamic State could worsen the geopolitical tensions in the oil-producing Middle East region and this supports crude prices”, said Sanjeev Gupta, who heads the Asia-Pacific oil and gas practice at professional services organization EY.
The data represents the Change in the number of barrels of crude oil held in inventory by commercial firms during the past week.
“Brimming crude oil stocks” offer “an unprecedented buffer against geopolitical shocks or unexpected supply disruptions”, the Paris-based agency said in its monthly market report.
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Prices are rising instead as investors are looking to oil, gold and treasuries, which are seen as safer investments than stocks, because of uncertainty around the economic consequences of the attacks.
