Oil Up, Brent Records Fifth Consecutive Gain as Demand Outlook Stays Bright

Oil was up Wednesday morning in Asia as a larger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude oil supplies and the ever-brightening fuel demand outlook in some countries gave the black liquid a boost.

Brent oil futures rose 0.88% to $74.64 by 12:10 AM ET (4:10 AM GMT), gaining for a fifth consecutive session after rising 1.6% on Tuesday. WTI futures gained 0.83% to $72.72 after rising 1.7% during the previous session.

U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute showed a draw of 8.537 million barrels for the week ending Jun. 11. The draw was much larger than both the 3-million-barrel draw in forecasts prepared by Investing.com and the previous week’s 2.108-million-barrel draw.

Crude oil supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due later in the day.

"Even non-energy traders are placing bets that oil prices will continue to rise," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

"Everyone is turning overly bullish with crude prices. The crude demand outlook is very robust as recoveries across the US, Europe and Asia, will have demand return to pre-COVID-19 levels in the second half of 2022," he added.

Meanwhile, executives from major oil traders including Vitol Chief Executive Russell Hardy, said on Tuesday they expected prices to remain above $70 a barrel and demand to return to pre-COVID-19 levels in the second half of 2022.

Hardy predicted that oil would trade within a $70 to $80 a barrel range for the rest of 2021 as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) is expected to continue its current output restraints.

Even if the U.S. and Iran revive a 2015 nuclear agreement to lift sanctions and Iranian exports are added back to the global supply, it is unlikely to change the bullish picture, he added.