Crude Oil Hits Multi-Year Highs on Demand Recovery Hopes By Investing.com – Investing.com

Crude Oil Hits Multi-Year Highs on Demand Recovery Hopes By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse   

Investing.com -- Crude oil prices edged higher Friday, climbing to fresh multi-year highs boosted by renewed confidence in surging oil demand in the second half of the year.

By 6:30 AM ET, was up 0.4% at $70.59 a barrel, a day after their highest close since October 2018. was up 0.2% at $72.63, a day after closing at the highest since May 2019.

U.S. were down 0.8% at $2.1945 a gallon.

Earlier Friday, the International Energy Agency stated, in its , that the world will need a lot more oil from the group of top producers, known as OPEC+, as global demand is on track to return to pre-pandemic levels at the end of next year. 

"OPEC+ needs to open the taps to keep the world oil markets adequately supplied," the Paris-based energy watchdog said, adding "in 2022 there is scope for the 24-member OPEC+ group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, to ramp up crude supply by 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) above its July 2021-March 2022 target."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries stuck to its forecast of a strong recovery in global oil demand in the