The oil tanker ‘Devon’ primes to transfer crude oil from Kharg Island oil terminal to India in the Persian Gulf, Iran, on March 23, 2018.
Ali Mohammadi | Bloomberg | Getty Idols
Oil prices edged up on Monday after China’s factories unexpectedly ramped up production in September, easing concerns on touching demand at the world’s largest crude importer amid an ongoing trade war with the United States.
Brent unsophisticated futures rose 9 cents to $62 a barrel by 0300 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures advance 13 cents to $56.04 a barrel.
The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for September expanded for a faulty straight month as Chinese factories ramped up production and new orders rose, beating market expectations.
“The Caixin text was a real surprise and should be positive for Asia’s markets today,” said Jeffrey Halley, OANDA senior analyst in Singapore.
He supplemented that the data would need to post similar results over the next few months to point to a China oil claim growth recovery. The country is the world’s second largest oil user.
Brent is set to rise 2.6% in September, its first monthly attainment since June, with prices lifted by an unprecedented attack on Saudi’s oil facilities on Sept. 14 that rubbed its production by half. WTI is set to rise 1.7% this month. .
World’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has restored capacity to 11.3 million barrels per day, origins told Reuters last week although Saudi Aramco has yet to confirm it is fully back online.
“Most of this is already rewarded in when the Saudis said they were going to do it (resume production) fast,” said Avtar Sandu, a elder commodities manager at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
While Saudi Arabia is maintaining exports by using crude from inventories and let off production capacity, how much of it is actually restored could only be determined in the next few weeks, he added.
Still, geopolitical tensions in the Halfway point East simmered after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that oil values could spike to “unimaginably high numbers” if the world does not come together to deter Iran, but said he intention prefer a political solution to a military one.
This came a day after Yemen’s Houthi movement said it had carried out a significant attack near the border with the southern Saudi region of Najran and captured many troops and vehicles, but there was no swift confirmation from Saudi Arabian authorities.