On Thursday, the price of WTI crude rose nearly 2% after the EIA reported that implied petroleum product demand in the United States had reached new highs. For the week ending December 10, implied petroleum product demand in the United States increased to 23.191 million bpd. The previous peak was set during the week ending August 27 this year, when 22.820 million bpd was hit.

The boost in demand for petroleum goods sparked renewed market optimism as market uncertainty dissipated following the Federal Reserve’s statement. The price changes come only days after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister advised traders not to short oil as they did over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The price of a barrel of WTI jumped to $72.04 on the day, up to $1.17 (+1.65%). Despite precautions taken to combat the new Omicron type, the price of a Brent barrel surged, climbing to $74.76, up to $0.88 (+1.19%) on the day. The price of oil has reached a three-week high.

The OPEC+ group left the previous meeting open in case it needed to make last-minute changes to its production strategy to avoid traders trading short. Starting in January, the company plans to expand production by 400,000 bpd. However, heavy shorts or decreasing prices may force the Group to scale back its production expansion plans.

Indeed, the open and halted meeting, as well as Saudi Arabia’s threats to shorts that betting against oil would leave traders “ouching like hell,” have bolstered oil prices.

Fears of an Omicron spike, which some think is unstoppable at this time, have mitigated the rise in oil prices.