Oil prices rise amid full vaccine approval and Mexico output cuts
By Shubhangi on Aug 24, 2021 | 03:34 AM IST
Oil prices
rose 3% on
Tuesday amid first full approval given to a COVID-19 vaccine by U.S. regulators
and oil output cuts in Mexico due to a fire on an oil platform.
Brent crude oil futures were up $2.13, or 3.1%, at $70.88 a
barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose $1.92, or 2.9%, to $67.54.
Both benchmarks, last week, posted biggest weekly losses in
more than nine months. On account of a weaker dollar, though, the benchmarks jumped
more than 5% on Monday.
The rise in oil prices comes at a time when the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) issued full approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech
two-dose vaccine on Monday. The vaccine was authorized for emergency use last
December.
The success by China in controlling the spread of Delta
variant has also boosted vaccine demand sentiment as no cases of locally
transmitted infections were reported recently, said analysts.
Another reason for the rise in prices is the fire on an oil
platform operated by Mexico on Sunday. Oil production was reduced by 421,000
barrels per day of production and five workers lost their lives.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy said up to 20
million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) oil stocks
will be sold to comply with legislation. Deliveries will take place between October
1 and December 15.
The Indian refiner’s crude throughput surged in July to its
highest in three months due to increase in fuel demand.
(With
inputs from Reuters)
Picture
Credits: Reuters