A growing number of oil traders are betting on a rebound this year after a 70 per cent plunge in the price of crude since June 2014. Bullish bets on the price of Brent crude taken by hedge funds and other asset managers increased by 12.4 per cent over the past week to their highest levels since 2011, the Intercontinental Exchange said.
After hitting decade lows in January, oil prices have rallied in recent weeks amid growing optimism that leading producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, will freeze their output levels.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the benchmark international contract, stood at $36.60 a barrel in London yesterday, well above 12-year lows struck in January of about $27.
Neil Atkinson, the new head of the International Energy Agency’s oil markets division, told a seminar in Oslo this week: “Oil prices appear to have bottomed out. Prices are expected to grow throughout 2016 and into 2017, reflecting expectations that the market is going back into balance in 2017.”