Oil Prices Close to $70 a Barrel Showing Signs of a Rebound

Oil prices are getting close to the $70/barrel range causing many insiders to talk about a rebound.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, on Thursday (March 11, 2021), oil futures rose 2.5% driven by increased driving on U.S highways in the past month.

West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil delivery rose for April futures to $66.02.

“Refined products and particularly gasoline has been leading the most recent charge higher in oil prices,” said Ryan Fitzmaurice, Commodities Strategist at Rabobank. “On the demand-side, the vaccine rollout is progressing quite rapidly, boding well for a surge in summer driving, especially in the West which has lagged the economic recovery witnessed in Asia.”

OPEC has downgraded its oil market over the next couple of quarters due to the pandemic's continued effects which will be risky to the recovery of oil prices.

Saudi Arabia has implemented extra cutbacks to rebalance the market which caused the OPEC output to decline.

Unemployment in the U.S. oil industry fell to it's lowest figure since November as vaccine distribution was ramped up and states are now easing business restrictions.

“Things are heading fundamentally in the right direction,” said Peter McNally, Global Head for Industrials, Materials, and Energy at Third Bridge. “If second half demand improves, which is the consensus view, in order to meet that demand, supply doesn’t seem to be coming from the U.S. It’s going to come from OPEC, and OPEC has shown restraint.”

West Texas Intermediate's December contracts indicated a tightening supply for the first time since September 2019.

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