The Mar Brent futures contract has been strengthening throughout the afternoon, reaching highs of $79.18/bbl at 17:20 GMT (time of writing). WTI also found strength throughout the day with the Mar contract trading at $73.04/bbl at 14:00 GMT and later pricing at $74.03/bbl at 17:30 GMT.
Crude futures contracts rallied on the back of bullish EIA stats published earlier today and showing a 2.49mbbls draw, as opposed to a 0.31mbbls draw expected by analysts. Across products, gasoline and distillates inventories rose by 3.08mbbls and 2.37mbbls respectively, against lower build expectations for both. However, another bullish news for crude was the OPEC report coming out and announcing oil demand growth to be almost 1.3mbpd next year in non-OECD countries, mostly from China, the Middle East and India, OPEC said. Rising Middle East tensions also helped prices in the afternoon as the Houthi Chief announced the organisation was in direct confrontation with the US.
The front and 6-month Brent futures spreads are at $0.49/bbl and $2.04/bbl respectively.
