Oil prices rise while China eases coronavirus restrictions

World oil prices rose on Monday morning amid the weakening of the coronavirus policy in China.

The price of February futures for Brent crude rose by 0.82% to $86.27 per barrel, and January futures for WTI went up by 0.85% to $80.66.

Last week, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called for further streamlining of anti-COVID measures, after which, over the weekend, Chinese authorities eased the requirements for testing for coronavirus in the country, and also resumed the work of a number of enterprises. Changes in the "zero covid" policy could help the country's economy recover and, in turn, increase oil demand.

Markets are also reacting to the decision of OPEC + to continue cutting oil production by 2 million barrels per day. OPEC+ cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day in May 2020 due to a drop in oil demand caused by the pandemic. Since August 2022, the alliance has moved to the final stage of exiting these cuts. Still, since November it has again reduced production - by 2 million barrels per day from the level that was the maximum possible for August.

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