Crude oil price on the Brent benchmark continued its ascent to new multi-year highs, as an energy crisis engineered by a recovery of economic activity hits major economies. Suppliers who are themselves recovering from pandemic-induced downtimes are struggling to meet demand.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had said last week that the US had no plans to tap into its strategic reserves, despite previous announcing it was mulling the action. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC +) had decided to go on with its graduated output increases, adding to further supply crunches exacerbated by two powerful hurricanes off the US Gulf Coast last month.
Crude oil price on the Brent benchmark is up 1.55% on the day, trading at 83.84.
The 3-day surge in crude prices is currently marching towards new 2021 highs at 85.32, a price last seen on 8 October 2018. If the bulls take out this resistance, the 86.71 price mark (1 October 2018 high) becomes the next upside target.
On the other hand, failure to breach or attain 85.32 makes room for a corrective decline which targets 81.91 initially, before 80.01 comes back into the mix as an additional target to the south.
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