Brent oil prices trading higher, close to $73

Brent crude oil prices are trading slightly higher on Friday at $72.48 after falling 10 percent in eight days. Oil prices pared some of this week’s drop after China’s factory production beat estimates and oil processing reached a record. Prices had fallen after US gasoline supplies rose to the highest level since April and inventories of distillate fuel increased last week.

“The only sustainable demand is coming from China,” said Clarence Chu, a trader with options dealers Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. “Everyone agrees that the growth is coming from the non-OECD countries.”

US Light crude oil futures for January delivery rose as much as 53 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $71.07 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYMEX. Yesterday, the contract fell 13 cents to $70.54, the lowest settlement price since Oct. 7. Futures are poised for a weekly drop of 6.2 percent, the biggest since the week ended 25th September.

China’s refiners boosted their output last month, underscoring how demand for crude outside of developed economies is supporting oil prices. The country’s oil processing rose 21 percent from a year earlier to 33.4 million metric tons, or about 8.2 million barrels a day, in November, according to data from the China Mainland Marketing Research Co.

Tags:  brent oil prices, China, trading, US