Crude oil steadied as investor weigh demand from China as the country struggles with lockdown due to COVID-19 and interruption to crude supplies from Libya.
“The demand impact of China lockdowns and the outages in Libya are on the oil market radar,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights as reported by Bloomberg.
“But the prospect of the EU phasing out Russian oil imports is the key sentiment driver.”
The West Texas Intermediate futures is trading around $108 a barrel while Brent is trading around $113 a barrel.
Oil production in Libya fell more than half a million barrels a day and further production risks weighs as the country faced with political demonstration. The Sharara field in the west of the country, which can pump 300,000 barrels a day, has been closed as protests spread.
Crude oil markets remain backwardated which is a bullish pattern where the near-term contract prices trading higher than longer-dated ones.
