Crude oil prices continue to rise despite the anticipated
collective release of SPRs, strategic petroleum reserves, by the leading
economies.
As of 09:30 on Friday, the price of WTI and Brent
stood at $80.06 and $82.60 respectively.
Although the OPEC+ estimated an oil glut in the first
quarter of 2022 last year, something they revised later on, the indications are
the demand is fast reaching the pre-pandemic level.
Data from the API, industry-funded American Petroleum
Institute, and the EIA, US Energy Information Administration, clearly indicates
that the US crude oil inventories are falling and the trend has been consistent
for the last few weeks.
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With the talks over reviving the JCPOA, 2015 Iranian
nuclear deal, keeping up the momentum just to avoid going passive, the prospect
of crude oil markets flooded by Iranian oil remains a distant dream as far as far
as beleaguered global importers are concerned.
The optimism of Iranian oil producers has not met
the political will in order to complement it, despite the severe need of
petro-dollars to revive many vital sectors of the Iranian economy.
The resistance against coming to an agreement with
Iran over the nuclear issue without getting a guarantee for not producing
weapons, meanwhile, is growing by day: it’s not just Israel, Iran’s arch enemy
in the region, that is against such a move; the major Sunni Arab nations want
the same in spite of recent manoeuvres to ‘repair’ strained ties.
With the price of crude oil going past the
politically-sensitive $80, the pressure on the Western politicians is reaching
the peak – once again; the colder winter days ahead do not help the situation
either, especially in the presence of rising gas prices, exacerbated due to the
conflict with Russia.
In this context, all eyes are on the US
administration to gauge the next move, individual or collective, in order to
curb the rising energy prices.
The US oil rig count, meanwhile, remains steady, bringing about a ray of hope for the US local audience. Its immediate impact on the price at the pumpls may not be visible in the short run, though, dashing the hopes of the politicians.
With a firm commitment to cutting down on greenhouse
gases, it has very little room for manoeuvre in the uphill task, though.
