The oil market continues to grow on Friday. Brent quotes reached $67.37 per barrel, WTI – $63,87. Experts note that the general fundamental background continues to support prices. In particular, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy on Wednesday announced a decrease in commercial crude oil reserves in the week of April 3-9 by 5.9 million barrels. In addition, projected gasoline demand rose to an almost 8-month high of 8.9 million barrels per day, down 5% from the same period in 2019. Another factor supporting the «black gold» was the increase in the forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA) on demand for crude oil in 2021 by 230 thousand barrels per day. Now the agency believes that this year the demand for oil will be 5.7 million barrels per day higher than in 2020, and will amount to 96.7 million barrels per day. OPEC also raised its forecast for oil demand this year by 100 thousand barrels per day. The organization expects that global oil demand in 2021 will grow by about 6 million barrels to 96.5 million barrels per day. OPEC also raised its forecast for global economic growth – to 5.4% from 5.1%. The weakening of the dollar continues to contribute to the rise in prices, which remains under pressure against the background of the decrease in the yield of Treasury bonds below the level of 1.60%.
