Oil prices began the week with new record levels on Monday in London market, an increase not recorded during the last 25 months, following the encouraging forecasts for demand for black gold shared on Friday, and Covid 19 restrictions ease.
A barrel of North Sea Brent crude for August delivery was trading at $73.37 in London, up by 0.94% from Friday’s close. In New York, WTI for July gained 0.76% and reached $71.45 a barrel.
Brent and WTI have been trading at record highs for the past week. Earlier in this morning, they reached $73.64 for Brent and $71.70 for WTI, the first time they have hit $73.64 and $71.70 respectively since May 2019 and October 2018.
Analysts believe the increase is the effect of “data released on Friday by International Energy Agency (IEA), which in its latest monthly report expects global oil demand to exceed pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022.
Demand “is expected to be around 100.6 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of next year”, slightly higher than the previous peak in the fourth quarter of 2019, just before the Covid-19 crisis broke.
