NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil costs swung wildly in 2022, climbing on tight provides amid the battle in Ukraine, then sliding on weaker demand from prime importer China and worries of an financial contraction, however closed the 12 months on Friday with a second straight annual achieve.
Costs surged in March as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended world crude flows, with worldwide benchmark Brent reaching $139.13 a barrel, highest since 2008. Costs cooled quickly within the second half as central banks hiked rates of interest and fanned worries of recession.
“This has been a rare 12 months for commodity markets, with provide dangers resulting in elevated volatility and elevated costs,” mentioned ING analyst Ewa Manthey. “Subsequent 12 months is ready to be one other 12 months of uncertainty, with loads of volatility,” she mentioned.
Brent crude on Friday, the final buying and selling day of the 12 months, settled at $85.91 a barrel, up practically 3% to $2.45 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $80.26 a barrel, up $1.86 or 2.4%.
For the 12 months, Brent gained about 10%, after leaping 50% in 2021. U.S. crude rose practically 7% in 2022, following final 12 months’s achieve of 55%. Each benchmarks fell sharply in 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic slashed gas demand.
Buyers in 2023 are anticipated to maintain taking a cautious strategy, cautious of rate of interest hikes and potential recessions.
“The demand and demand progress goes to be an actual query due to the heavy-handed actions by the worldwide central banks and the slowdown that they’re attempting to engineer,” mentioned John Kilduff, accomplice at Once more Capital LLC in New York.
A survey of 30 economists and analysts forecast Brent would common $89.37 a barrel in 2023, about 4.6% decrease than the consensus in a November survey. U.S. crude is projected to common $84.84 per barrel in 2023, down from the prior view.
Whereas a leap in year-end vacation journey and Russia’s ban on crude and oil product gross sales has supported crude, tighter provide might be offset subsequent 12 months by declining gas consumption attributable to a deteriorating financial surroundings, mentioned CMC Markets analyst Leon Li.
Oil’s decline within the second half of 2022 as rising rates of interest to battle inflation boosted the U.S. greenback. That made dollar-denominated commodities like crude extra expensive for holders of different currencies.
The greenback was on monitor to publish its largest annual achieve since 2015.
China’s zero-COVID restrictions, which have been eased solely this month, had squashed demand restoration hopes. The world’s prime oil importer and second-biggest client in 2022 posted its first drop in oil demand for years.
Whereas China’s oil demand is predicted to get better in 2023, a latest surge in COVID-19 instances has dimmed hopes of an instantaneous increase in barrel shopping for.
In an indicator of future provide, the U.S. oil and fuel rig depend rose 33% for the 12 months, power providers agency Baker Hughes Co mentioned in its newest report. [RIG/U]
Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York; further reporting by Alex Lawler, Florence Tan and Emily Chow; Modifying by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio
