Oil Jumps on Supply Concerns With Kazakhstan Unrest

Oil prices rose on Friday and headed for the highest weekly increase since mid-December, due to unrest in Kazakhstan and production outages in Libya, which raised concerns about supplies.

Brent crude futures rose 76 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $82.75 a barrel by 0939 GMT.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 77 cents, or 1%, to $80.23 a barrel.

And the two crudes are about to register a 6.5 percent increase in the first week of the year, with prices reaching their highest levels since the end of November, as concerns about supplies outweighed concerns about the possibility of demand being affected by the rapid spread of the Omicron mutant from the Coronavirus.

Supply increases from the OPEC+ group, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allies, are not keeping pace with demand growth.

OPEC production in December rose by 70,000 barrels per day from the previous month, much less than the increase allowed under the OPEC + agreement of 253,000 barrels per day, which restored production cut in 2020 when demand collapsed under the Covid-19 closures. .

Libya’s production fell to 729,000 barrels per day, from a high production of 1.3 million barrels per day last year, partly due to pipeline maintenance work.