Oil prices dip, but remain near three-week high

Oil prices (BZ=F, CL=F) dipped but remain near 3-week highs as demand rebounds, particularly in Asia, amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports on what is driving oil prices.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Eyek Ntekim

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Oil prices falling today but are hovering near three-week highs amid rising demand out of Asia and as troubles between Israel and Hamas persist. Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferré to tell us more about what we're seeing here. Hey, Ines.

INES FERRÉ: Hey Rachelle. Yeah. And we did see, over the last couple of weeks, a steady decline when it comes to oil prices, even though today we're seeing prices dip a bit. But nevertheless, we are looking at prices that are around three week high. You have global oil demand, which for the month of December was-- grew by more than 500,000 barrels per day in December from November. That's the eighth monthly record for 2023.

This is data that individual countries report, and you had rising demand out of Asia, particularly China. You also had global jet fuel demand that also has been rising. If we take a look at our Wi-Fi interactive, you'll notice year to date, you've got Brent Crude, which is up more than 8%. You also have WTI that's up about 11%.

I want to also mention that the Russian oil minister he said that Russia plans to stick to its export curbs in order to comply with OPEC's production cuts. Remember, those are still going on. And then you've got the tensions in the Middle East, which are also creating lift for oil prices as you have tensions around the Red Sea area as well.

Want to mention also in the last week or so, we did get the EIA forecast for US production. That's supposed to slow this year. So you're not supposed to see those record production numbers from December 2023 until now until 2025. So that should also lift oil prices and the SPR. The US is refilling the Strategic Petroleum reserve. The Department of Energy announcing that it has already bought about 23 million barrels, that's a fraction of what they need, but nevertheless at around just north of $76 per barrel. So all of this has been helping to lift oil prices, Rachelle.