© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate at sunset in an oil field in Midland, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
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By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices edged higher on Thursday on news China is considering easing COVID-19 quarantine measures for visitors, boosting hopes for increased energy demand in the world’s top oil importer.
futures rose 6 cents to $92.47 a barrel by 12:58 p.m. EDT (1658 GMT).
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery, which expires on Thursday, rose 95 cents to $86.50 per barrel. WTI for December delivery was up 30 cents at $84.82 per barrel.
Beijing is considering cutting the quarantine period for visitors to seven days from 10 days, Bloomberg news reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
“That’s been seen as a positive demand indicator for the market,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.
China, the world’s largest crude importer, has stuck to strict COVID curbs this year, which weighed heavily on business and economic activity, lowering demand for fuel.
A looming European Union ban on Russian crude and oil products, as well as the output cut from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, have also supported prices.
OPEC+ agreed on a production cut of 2 million barrels per day in early October.
Separately, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a plan on Wednesday to sell off the rest of his release from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by year’s end, or 15 million barrels of oil, and begin refilling the stockpile as he tries to dampen high gasoline prices ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 8.
The announcement, however failed to ease oil prices, as official U.S. data showed that the SPR last week dropped to their lowest since mid-1984, while commercial oil stocks fell unexpectedly. [EIA/S]
Meanwhile, global demand for fuel remains uncertain. U.S. economic activity expanded modestly in recent weeks, although it was flat in some regions and declined in a couple of others, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in a report that showed firms growing more pessimistic about the outlook.
