Oil Prices Surge as OPEC Weighs Rising Demand in Rich Countries

Oil Prices Surge as OPEC Weighs Rising Demand in Rich Countries

Oil prices rose sharply ahead of a critical OPEC meeting in which the cartel is expected to weigh up how to meet surging demand from the industrialized world.

U.S. crude rose more than 2% early Thursday, topping $75 a barrel for the first time since 2018. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up almost 2%, approaching $76 a barrel.

OPEC’s meeting comes at a time when the historical dynamics of the oil markets have been thrown upside down by the pandemic. Demand growth from the developed world, which for years has stagnated, is on a tear as it emerges furiously from Covid-19 lockdowns. The developing world—the source of almost all new oil demand in years past—is still sputtering. That all makes gauging short-term crude demand as difficult as it has been since the world climbed back from the global economic crisis more than a decade ago.