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New York, U.S. | Xinhua | Oil prices surged on Monday, reclaiming the losses they had suffered in the prior week.
The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery added 3.23 U.S. dollars, or 4.9 percent, to settle at 69.49 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for February delivery increased 3.2 dollars, or 4.6 percent, to close at 73.08 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
“Today’s upswing was sparked by Saudi Arabia’s raising of its official selling prices (OSPs) at the weekend,” Carsten Fritsch, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said Monday in a note.
The world’s largest exporter said Sunday that it will be charging a higher price premium for oil deliveries to Asia and the United States in January than in the previous month.
“The higher premiums for Asia and the U.S. can be regarded as signs of robust demand. This underpins last week’s decision by OPEC+ to expand oil production by an additional 400,000 barrels per day in January,” Fritsch added.
For the week ending Friday, the U.S. crude benchmark fell 2.8 percent, while Brent slipped 2.4 percent, based on the front-month contracts.
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Xinhua
