By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - U.S. oil prices returned to near seven-year highs on Tuesday as bulls in the market seized upon the White House’s reopening of the country’s borders for international travel as a sign of explosive demand ahead for jet fuel.
An estimate by industry analysts, meanwhile, that domestic stockpiles of crude in the country had possibly grown for a sixth time in seven weeks went largely ignored as those long oil focused on recovering every bit of the momentum lost during a selloff the previous week.
“With the reopening of U.S. borders for vaccinated travelers, jet fuel demand ought to receive a healthy ... boost,” Tamas Varga of oil brokers PVM said in a commentary carried by Reuters.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, settled up $2.85, or 3.5%, at $81.93 per barrel. WTI hit seven-year highs above $85 in late October, before tumbling to $78.25 on Thursday.
London-traded Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, finished up 72 cents, or 0.9%, at $84.15. Brent hit a three-year high of $86.70 late last month, before sinking to around $80 last week.
Tuesday’s rally came ahead of a weekly snapshot on U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate stockpiles due from the American Petroleum Institute. The API numbers, released each Tuesday after market settlement at 4:30 PM ET (20:30 GMT), are a precursor to official weekly inventory data due each Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration.
Analysts tracked by Investing.com have forecast that U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.13 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 5, adding to the previous week’s gain of 3.29 million.
Gasoline inventories likely dropped by 1.19 million barrels, on top of the decline of almost 1.49 million in the previous week, forecasts showed.
Stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, are expected to have fallen by 1.13 million barrels, after the previous week’s build of 2.16 million.