Oil benchmarks climbed on Friday : NYMEX WTI front month posted at 1.4% gain to end the week at $109.77/b and ICE Brent front month ended the week 1.3% higher at $112.39/b. Last week, NYMEX WTI climbed by 5.5% and ICE Brent by 5.7%.
On Friday, market was pushed up by the incoming embargo on Russian oil in the European Union. European diplomats are now working on final adjustments, in particular to give Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic until 2024 to halt import from Russia as well as financial help to adapt refineries to process non-Russian crude.
Over the weekend, members of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States) also announced they will stop importing oil from Russia, but no schedule was announced and this ban already exists in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The weekly oil rig report by Baker Hughes showed an increase of active rigs, adding five more.
In Beijing, restrictions continue to strengthen: in the biggest district of the Chinese capital, all non-essential activities would be shut. This morning oil is trading lower, ICE Brent loses -0.4% as a result of the publication of bad economic indicators from China, especially the 4.8% yoy contraction in crude oil imports in April (see Eco brief for more details).
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