LONDON (Bloomberg) - Oil posted the longest stretch of weekly advances since 2015 as OPEC+ producers only modestly supply the market and as U.S. crude supplies shrink.
Crude futures rose 1.5 percent on Friday in New York, up for a ninth straight week.
U. .President Joe Biden said on Thursday night that Americans should expect high gasoline prices to continue into next year because of supply being withheld by OPEC and other foreign oil producers.
Stockpiles at the biggest U.S. storage hub are draining to levels last seen when crude prices were at $100.
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery rose $1.26 to $83.76 a barrel on Friday, up 1.8 percent for the week.
Brent crude oil for December delivery on Friday rose US$0.92 to US$85.53 a barrel, gaining 0.8 percent weekly.
While headline prices have been volatile over the past two sessions, the structural tightness in supply has been the biggest driver in the markets, Again Capital LLC partner John Kilduff said. “There’s no real sense in the market that OPEC+ is going to be coming forward with any meaningful amount of additional crude oil in the near future.”
Oil soared to the highest since 2014 this week on concerns that rising consumption is racing ahead of supply. The shortage of natural gas and coal is triggering extra demand for oil products.
Meanwhile, OPEC and its allies once again failed to pump enough oil to meet their output targets, exacerbating the supply deficit as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.