World crude oil prices witness partial recovery

World crude oil prices witness partial recovery

Muscat: Crude oil prices witnessed a partial recovery in December after recording the biggest weekly decline in 20 weeks last week, although prices continued to remain below the $80 per barrel mark, according to a new report.

“The recovery was mainly led by news of easing COVID-19 restrictions in China as well as oil pipeline leak at the Keystone Pipeline System, an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, that affected oil supplies," the Kuwait-based Kamco Invest said in its Oil Market Monthly Report of December 2022.

“In addition, the news of declining well productivity in the US with the slowdown in fracking of drilled wells also gave underlying support to crude oil on the supply front. Nevertheless, uncertainty about demand recovery kept prices subdued despite several significant actions on the supply front including the sanctions and price cap on Russian crude oil, the implementation of production cuts by Opec+ last month and the plateauing of US crude oil production and crude oil rig count,” it added.

On the demand side, air travel global seat capacity still trails pre-pandemic levels by around 16 per cent, according to data from OAG Aviation. However, the faster-than-expected unwinding of COVID-19 restrictions in China resulted