Oil prices experienced on Wednesday, a slight increase due to expectations of steady growth in U.S. oil production until 2025, which alleviated concerns about an oversupply. Brent crude futures saw a rise of 0.5 percent, or 38 cents, reaching $78.97 per barrel at 00:13 GMT. Similarly, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.6 percent, or 41 cents, to $73.72.
Read more: Oil prices fall as China’s economic activity weighs on sentiment
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. domestic production is not projected to surpass the record set in December 2023, which exceeded 13.3 million barrels per day, until February 2025. The EIA released this information in its short-term energy outlook on Tuesday. Furthermore, the EIA revised its forecast for domestic oil output growth in 2024, lowering it by 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 170,000 bpd. This revision represents a significant decrease compared to last year’s output increase of 1.02 million bpd.
Later on Wednesday, U.S. government data on oil inventory is expected to be released. It is anticipated that U.S. crude stocks have risen by 1.9 million barrels in the past week due to production recovering from a cold freeze and refiners commencing maintenance.
Traders have been closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East, particularly the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. These attacks have disrupted traffic through the Suez Canal, which is the fastest sea route connecting Asia and Europe and handles nearly 12 percent of global trade.
For more news on markets, click here.
