Oil prices continued to climb Thursday with Brent gaining 95 cents to settle at $84.67 and WTI settling up $1.42 to close at $82.64. US Crude inventories fell 4.6 million barrels last week to 413.3 million barrels, the lowest since October 2018. “The crude draw was bigger than expected despite a material drop in refining activity,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler. “The falling dollar was the main driver of higher oil prices, overtaking even the EIA draw…” “Assuming China doesn’t suffer a sharp slowdown, that Omicron actually becomes Omi-gone, and with OPEC+’s ability to raise production clearly limited, I see no reason why Brent crude cannot move towards $100 in Q1, possibly sooner,” said Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley.

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