U.S. oil closed up 1% and hit a six-week low in the session

On Thursday (November 18), U.
S.
oil and crude oil both rose 1% in late trading, closing at $78.
32 / barrel and $81.
1 / barrel
, respectively.
Oil prices fell as low as $77.
08 a barrel
earlier as investors weighed how much crude oil major economies would release from their strategic reserves and how much this would ease pressure on global crude demand.
Crude oil prices moved higher
in choppy trading as U.
S.
oil fell below $80 to attract dip buying from some investors.

Spencer Vosko, head of crude oil at Black Diamond Commodities LLC, said WTI crude prices appear to have gained some support
at $78 after pulling back from the mid-$80 range last week.

A Japanese Ministry of Industry official said the United States had asked Tokyo authorities to cooperate in dealing with rising oil prices, but he could not confirm whether the request included coordinating the release of stocks
.
The official said that under the law, Japan cannot release oil reserves to lower prices
.
A South Korean official also confirmed that the United States had asked Seoul authorities to release some of its oil reserves
.
We are thoroughly reviewing the U.
S.
request, but we will not release oil reserves
because of rising oil prices.
We can release oil reserves in the event of an imbalance between supply and demand, but not in response to higher
oil prices.

Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group, said oil prices recovered slightly as Japan and South Korea showed resistance to releasing crude reserves
.
The market will continue to be tight as it guards against the release of oil reserves
.

With the global economy weighed down by rising inflation, major oil consumers are trying to keep prices
down.
The International Energy Agency said this week that some of the current tensions in the market are beginning to ease
as global production picks up and seaborne oil volumes have soared in recent weeks.
UBS commodities analyst Giovanni Staunovo said it felt like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be released soon, and it was just a matter of
when and how much.

Days after the United States invited the world's largest importer to sell crude together, pushing down energy prices, the country is releasing some oil
from its strategic reserves.
The current proposal, which involves the world's largest importer of crude oil, is an unprecedented challenge for OPEC and could also depress prices
, at least temporarily.

Vortexa analyst David Wech wrote in the report that if oil demand returns to 2019 levels and producers do not increase the number of fields, OPEC+'s spare oil capacity could be exhausted
in the next 12 months.
The current spare capacity is "at best" 3 million b/d, with Saudi Arabia having as much as 2 million b/d and the rest in Russia and the UAE
.
If you compare exports in October and the first half of November with the 2019 average, Saudi Arabia and the UAE already export on average by about 500,000 b/d
above pre-pandemic levels.