Oil prices lifted on Monday after the Sino decision to import a larger volume of crude oil for the United States in August and September. The demand seems to increase after the coronavirus pandemic.
Brent crude increased by 0.5% or 21 cents to $45.01 per barrel per day by GMT 0023.
The United States West Texas crude went up by 0.6% or 27 cents to $42.28 barrel per day.
China vowed to import $18.5 billion of energy stocks in January. It included natural gas (over its level as per 2017) and crude oil. It makes the total volume of about $25 billion in 2020.
As per the report released by Reuters on Friday, state-owned crude oil and fuel companies have provisionally booked oil tankers for ease of transportation of about 20 million barrels of fuel from the United States in August and September.
China in 2018 emerged as the top buyer of U.S crude, importing about $5.42 billion. The data remained the same until the trade tension between Sino-U.S did not hike. But with the increasing tensions, flows came to a close halt.
According to the estimation by ANZ, the oil demand has surged from 8 million barrels per day to 88 million barrels per day over the last four months. Still, the value is low as compared to the previous year (13 million BPD low)