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▲(Photo = Energy Economy Newspaper DB) |
[에너지경제신문 나유라 기자] International oil prices rose 3.5% overnight to the $66 mark, thanks to measures to freeze oil production in April by major oil producing countries and strong US employment indicators.
On the 5th, on the New York Commercial Exchange, the price of West Texas crude oil (WTI) for April closed at $66.09, soaring $2.26 (3.5%) per barrel.
WTI surged by 7.5% this week.
WTI’s rise is because major oil producing countries allowed only a slight increase in production in April, and expectations for an increase in demand for crude oil grew as the US employment index showed strong performance.
At the meeting of the Ministers of Petroleum, which was held on video on the 4th (local time), OPEC+ (Oil Exporting Countries and the meeting of major oil producing countries such as Russia) allowed the’modest’ increase in April only in Russia and Kazakhstan, and the rest of the member countries did not. Agreed not to. Russia and Kazakhstan were allowed to increase production by 130,000 and 20,000 barrels per day in April, respectively, taking into account seasonal consumption patterns.
Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer, has decided to maintain voluntary production cuts of 1 million barrels per day until April.
As the outlook that OPEC+ would increase oil production was dominant at the beginning, international oil prices are also shaken by unexpected decisions.
As a result, experts have continuously raised the forecast for international oil prices. Goldman Sachs predicted that Brent oil would rise to $75 a barrel in the first half of this year.
Even in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the improvement in US employment centered on leisure and hospitality has also contributed to an increase in international oil prices. As expectations for crude oil demand grew, it had a positive effect on the rise of international oil prices.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced in February that employment in the non-agricultural sector increased by 379,000. This was more than the market estimate of 210,000 people increased by the Wall Street Journal.
The unemployment rate also fell to 6.2% from 6.3% last month. It was lower than the market forecast of 6.3%.
In response to the news, major US indexes also ended higher. On that day, the Dow Jones 30 Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ended at 31,496.30, up 572.16 points (1.85%) from the battlefield.
The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index soared 73.47 points (1.95%) from the battlefield to 3,841.94, while the technology stock-oriented NASDAQ index closed at 12,920.15, up 196.68 points (1.55%).
The Dow index rose about 1.8% this week. The S&P500 index rose by 0.8%, while the Nasdaq fell by about 2.1%.
Experts predict that oil prices will continue to rise as the economic outlook improves.
“The employment indicators are fueled by the claim that the world’s largest economy is recovering relatively strongly from the pandemic,” said David Maden, researcher at CMC Markets. “The demand for crude oil will increase.”