Oil Up With Help from US Stockpiles, Goldman as India Burns From Covid By Investing.com – Investing.com

Oil Up With Help from US Stockpiles, Goldman as India Burns From Covid By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - Oil prices rose about 2% on Wednesday, helped by bullish U.S. inventory and a Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) forecast for $80 a barrel within the next six months, even as third-largest crude importer India remained devastated by one of the world's worst Covid outbreaks.

“The market is focused on the U.S. narrative for energy demand and  Goldman Sachs' high-flying forecast for oil prices,” said John Kilduff, founding partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “These have helped fudge the global story for Covid and oil for the moment, and we'll have to see if the momentum can be sustained.”

India suffered on Tuesday its worst day yet of the pandemic, as both new infections and deaths broke previous records while crematoriums in capital New Delhi became so overloaded with bodies that makeshift cremation pyres were erected on spare patches of land. 

Alex Yap, senior oil analyst at S&P Global (NYSE:) Platts Analytics, said he expected refinery run rates in India "easing to some extent in April and beyond, given the increase in the number of pockets witnessing lockdowns and rising infection numbers" from Covid.

New York-traded , the benchmark for U.S.