Oil futures concluded session with gains, contributing to a weekly increase of 2% for U.S. benchmark crude prices.
Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, noted to MarketWatch, “There is certainly still a geopolitical fear bid in oil markets here with [West Texas Intermediate crude] prices in the low $80s.” Richey added, “Geopolitical worries have eased from their most tense levels seen earlier in April as the escalation in the Middle East between Israel and Iran has receded back to a still unsettling, but notably more stable level.”
WTI oil for June delivery ascended by 28 cents, or 0.3%, settling at $83.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month prices registered their first weekly gain in three weeks. Brent crude for June delivery climbed by 49 cents, or nearly 0.6%, concluding at $89.50 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, posting a weekly increase of 2.5%.
According to Richey, absent the simmering geopolitical concerns, WTI would likely hover in the low-to-mid $70-a-barrel range. He noted that consumer demand for gasoline has been diminishing in recent weeks, coupled with the absence of changes to output policy by OPEC+ for some time.
