The price of oil remained steady on Thursday’s session after the released news suggesting that a strong demand in China somehow lessened the brimming world supply.
According to customs data released on the day, China’s imports in crude oil rose as much as 13.8 percent or 212 million tonnes (8.55 million barrels per day) on the same period last 2016. This makes China the largest importer of crude oil. China’s strong demand also eased the on-going supply glut concerns.
The world would require more than 32.20 million barrels per day of crude oil from countries that are affiliated on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this coming 2018. This is driven by the increasing choices of supply from consumers that are not a member of the organization.
OPEC said that their production jumped as much as 32.611 million barrels per day from 393,000 bpd last June led by Libya and Nigeria, regardless of its deal to restrict output by 1.2 million bpd amid January 2017 until the end of the first quarter next year. However, there are still indications that the oil market, which is considered bloated, is gradually easing.
Meanwhile in prices, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost about 1 cents to settle at $45.48 a barrel and international benchmark Brent crude futures was added 1 cents and finished at $47.75 a barrel on the previous session.
On crude inventories in the United States, it dropped about 7.6 million barrels in the week until July 7.