AGL 39.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.05%)
AIRLINK 131.22 Increased By ▲ 2.16 (1.67%)
BOP 6.81 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.89%)
CNERGY 4.71 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (4.9%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.47 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.59%)
DGKC 82.09 Increased By ▲ 1.13 (1.4%)
FCCL 33.10 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.01%)
FFBL 72.87 Decreased By ▼ -1.56 (-2.1%)
FFL 12.26 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (4.43%)
HUBC 110.74 Increased By ▲ 1.16 (1.06%)
HUMNL 14.51 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (5.53%)
KEL 5.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-2.26%)
KOSM 7.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.42%)
MLCF 38.90 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (0.78%)
NBP 64.01 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.79%)
OGDC 192.82 Decreased By ▼ -1.87 (-0.96%)
PAEL 25.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.12%)
PIBTL 7.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.68%)
PPL 154.07 Decreased By ▼ -1.38 (-0.89%)
PRL 25.83 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.16%)
PTC 17.81 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (1.77%)
SEARL 82.30 Increased By ▲ 3.65 (4.64%)
TELE 7.76 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.27%)
TOMCL 33.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.8%)
TPLP 8.49 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.07%)
TREET 16.62 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (2.15%)
TRG 57.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-1.41%)
UNITY 27.51 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.07%)
WTL 1.37 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-1.44%)
BR100 10,504 Increased By 59.3 (0.57%)
BR30 31,226 Increased By 36.9 (0.12%)
KSE100 98,080 Increased By 281.6 (0.29%)
KSE30 30,559 Increased By 78 (0.26%)

Oil prices edged up on Thursday, remaining near 2-1/2-year highs after data showed strong demand for crude imports in China and on increased US refining activity that drew more crude from inventories. Trading was typically thin at year end, with many traders on vacation.
The US Energy Department said crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels in the latest week. Inventories excluding the nation's strategic reserve have declined more than 11 percent in the last year. US refining runs increased, pushing capacity use to 95.7 percent, the highest in December dating to 1998. Refiners have profited in recent months as the spread widened between US crude and Brent futures prices.
"In the week past, strong demand for refined products, especially distillates, continued to incent refiners to process crude oil at increasing rates," said David Thompson, executive vice president at Powerhouse, an energy-specialized commodities broker in Washington. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 20 cents to $59.84 a barrel. Brent crude futures settled up 28 cents at $66.72 a barrel.
This week, WTI broke above $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015, while Brent breached $67 for the first time since May 2015. Oil markets have tightened after a year of production cuts led by Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Russia. Opec cuts kicked off last January and are scheduled to continue throughout 2018.
Countering those cutbacks, US oil production has soared more than 16 percent since mid-2016 and is approaching 10 million barrels per day, trailing only Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia. In the most recent week, US production dipped modestly to 9.75 million bpd from 9.79 million bpd the previous week.
Prices were supported in early trade by China's release of strong import quotas for 2018. China's crude inventories in November hit a seven-year low of 26.15 million tonnes, Xinhua data showed.
Pipeline outages in Libya and the North Sea have also supported prices. Libyan oil supplies were disrupted by an attack on a pipeline this week and flows towards the port of Es Sider were cut by about 70,000 bpd on Thursday. In the North Sea, the 450,000 bpd capacity Forties pipeline system was shut this month after a crack was found. Both pipelines are expected to return to normal operations by early January.

Comments

Comments are closed.