Oil Updates — crude firms to multi-month highs, eyes on US inflation data

Oil Updates — crude firms to multi-month highs, eyes on US inflation data

RIYADH: Oil recouped early marginal losses on Thursday, climbing to multi-month peaks as the market weighed supply tightness concerns with fuel demand worries ahead of key US inflation data.

Brent crude rose 26 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $87.81 a barrel by 9:27 a.m. Saudi time, hitting its highest since Jan. 23.

West Texas Intermediate crude gained 25 cents, also 0.3 percent, to $84.65, a level last seen in November 2022.

Oil prices have been buoyed by worries about supply tightness as tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea region could threaten shipments of Russian oil, on top of extended production cuts by Saudi Arabia.

“Oil prices have been resilient to a weak economic showing out of China in recent weeks, with market participants choosing to place their focus on the tighter supplies conditions from Saudi Arabia and Russia’s output cuts to continue their unwind from previous bearish positioning,” wrote Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG, in a note.

Top exporter, Saudi Arabia plans to extend its voluntary production cut of 1 million barrels per day for another month to include September. Russia also said it would cut oil exports by 300,000 bpd in September.

The market is awaiting July Consumer Price Index