As price of oil rises above $70 per barrel
Oil prices eased from three-year highs today but were still on track to end the week higher for a fourth week in a row.
As the price of oil rises above $70 per barrel for the first time since 2014 amid investors betting that supply cuts led by OPEC will dominate the market this year, some traders are sounding a warning.
OPEC is the cartel of 14 oil-producing nations that accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s output.
RAC, the motoring group, has warned rising oil prices could lead to higher forecourt costs for motorists as it is likely to have “a knock-on effect in the forecourt due to the increase causing the wholesale price of fuel to rise”.
An RAC spokesman said: “If oil stays at this level, pump price hikes will be almost inevitable.With households across the country still feeling the cost of Christmas this is not the start to 2018 anyone would have wanted. It could also negatively affect business and further fuel inflation.”
According to Reuters, China is now producing so much fuel that its refiners have turned to exports to find buyers. And their purchases of crude could fall.
Chinese diesel exports have surged by almost 3,000 percent since early 2015, to a record of more than 2 million tonnes last December, according to customs data. Its gasoline exports are up by 365 percent since early 2015, to more than 1 million tonnes in December.
Its total December refined oil products reached a record 6.17 million tonnes, according to customs data announced today.
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