The recovery in petroleum prices continued on Wednesday, supported by hopes that a meeting between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members and allied producers on Thursday will trigger output cuts to shore up prices that have collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Thursday’s videoconference meeting between OPEC and allies including Russia is expected to be more successful than their gathering in March, which ended in a failure to extend supply cuts and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Accordingly, Brent crude gained 54 cents, or 1.7%, to trade at $32.41 U.S. per barrel, after falling 3.6% on Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.18, or 5%, to trade at $24.81 U.S. per barrel.
Data provided Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that inventory rose by 15.2 million barrels for the week ending April 3.
Crude has collapsed in 2020 because of a slide in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak and excess supply. Brent dropped to $21.65, its lowest since 2002, on March 30.
The EIA also said U.S. crude production is expected to slump by 470,000 bpd and and demand is set to drop by about 1.3 million bpd in 2020.
In a sign of excess supply, the American Petroleum Institute, said U.S. crude inventories jumped by 11.9 million barrels.
