(London) Oil prices climbed Thursday amid a fragile climate where bullish US crude inventory data contests fears the Omicron variant will freeze the recovery in demand for black gold.
At around 6:45 a.m., the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent for February delivery rose 1.06% to $ 74.66.
In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the month of January gained 1.14% to 71.68 dollars.
The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday showed that U.S. crude trade reserves declined 4.6 million barrels during the week ending Dec. 10.
Expected to rise by 2.05 million barrels, gasoline inventories also melted, by 700,000 barrels.
But the “poor performance” of crude prices in the wake of the publication of this weekly report “is a red flag indicating that attention has once again been focused on COVID-19”, observes Tamas Varga, analyst. by PVM.
It is more “the signal given by the US Federal Reserve to tackle inflation before it derails the US economy” that is stimulating prices, in the opinion of Avtar Sandu, of Phillip Futures .
The Fed announced on Wednesday that it would cease its economic support measures earlier than expected, paving the way for three key rate hikes in 2022.
Investors were also attentive to gas prices, which hit a new high on Thursday since October 6 at 135.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).
The benchmark European gas market, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), gained around 5:45 a.m. Thursday 0.54% to 132.99 euros.
Reacting to strong tensions between European customers and the Russian supplier over Ukraine, it is up 25% since the start of the week.