Oil up on expectations of improved Chinese demand

By Sibel Morrow

ANKARA (AA) - Oil prices rose on Monday due to strong demand in China, but further gains were limited by the US decision to sell oil from emergency stockpiles and an unexpected build in the country's crude oil inventories.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $83.67 per barrel at 9.39 a.m. local time (0639 GMT), up 0.80% from the closing price of $83 a barrel in the previous trading session.

At the same time, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $77.11 per barrel, a 0.73% rise after the previous session closed at $76.55 a barrel.

Oil prices fell nearly 4% last week, owing to soaring inflationary sentiments in the US and weak demand projections following a larger-than-expected build in US crude oil inventories.

However, prices rebounded from last week's losses on hopes of stronger demand in China, the world’s largest oil-importing country.

The aviation sector in the country has almost healed the wounds of the pandemic period, surging 34.8% year on year, and recovering by 74.5% compared to the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, the US decision to release oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil, is putting prices under pressure.

The plan includes the sale of 26 million barrels, which are set to be delivered to the market from April 1 to June 30.

Data released late Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on a larger-than-expected inventory build in the US is also limiting price increases.

US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 3.6%, or around 16.3 million barrels, to 471.4 million barrels, against the market expectation of an increase of around 321,000 barrels.