Crude oil makes back all lost during pandemic

ISLAMABAD (TLTP): The price of crude oil has made back all that it lost during the Covid-19 pandemic as oil futures finished week by up to 5 percent higher amid optimistic demand expectations.
Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, rose 4.6 percent to the highest finish since May 21, 2019 to close the week at $71.89 a barrel after trading as high as $72.17 a barrel. Likewise, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures scored a 5 percent weekly rise, marking the highest front-month contract finish since October 17, 2018, to reach $69.62 a barrel.
The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $69.89 a barrel, Arab Light was available at $70.91 a barrel while the price of Russian Sokol reached $71.20 a barrel.
In January 2020, crude oil traded in the $60 range for WTI but began to slide as the global economy went into a tailspin because of governments’ worldwide ordered lockdowns. By the beginning of the second quarter, the WTI price had fallen to less than $20.
Soft prices resulted in production declines in the US and around the world. The US production dropped from 13 million barrels per day (b/d) to 11 million b/d, while the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of non-member producing countries, which includes Russia, decided to cut production by 9.7 million b/d.
According to analysts, Not every country in the world is on a full recovery mode yet, but at the moment no hiccup seems able to reverse the bullish momentum ushered in by strong summer demand. It’s not only summer demand, it’s also progress in vaccination campaigns and major pushes by governments to convince people to inoculate, they opined.