Oil prices rebound after China exit from COVID-19

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Oil prices rebound after China exit from COVID-19

After its exit from COVID-19 pandemic curbs, top importers of China jumped prices after prices fell on concerns about global economic growth, TOKYO crude oil prices rebounded on Wednesday.

Brent crude futures rose 59 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $86.72 per barrel by 0214 GMT, after falling 2.3 per cent in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate WTI crude futures rose 46 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to $80.59 per barrel, having dropped 1.8 per cent on Tuesday.

The economic worries were exacerbated by a larger than expected build in U.S. oil inventories that was reported after the market settled on Tuesday.

U.S. crude stocks rose by about 3.4 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 20, according to market sources. That was triple the number of 1 million predicted in a preliminary Reuters poll on Monday.

Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities, said the build is likely to be temporary as the supply disruptions from a cold snap in the United States a few weeks ago would only affect the data in the next couple of weeks.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release official data later on Wednesday.

Kikukawa said that WTI will trade in a range between $75 and $85 a barrel in the second half of the year, despite the fact that China's fuel demand will recover in the second half of the year.

Oil supply should remain steady for the medium term as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC and their allies, which are known as OPEC, are expected to keep their output quotas.

Five OPEC sources said on Tuesday that the producer group's current oil output policy is likely to be supported by an OPEC panel when it meets next week, as hopes for higher Chinese demand are balanced by worries over inflation and the global economy.