Price movements
By 15:09 GMT, crude futures were up Brent $1.14, or 1.5 percent, to $75.04 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.16, or 1.7 percent, to $71.53 a barrel.
Brent is on track to settle at its highest since September 2.
“The Chinese government’s announcement of the largest stimulus package since the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the sudden escalation of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East… has dealt a blow to the negative sentiment that has dominated oil markets over the past three weeks,” Claudio Galimberti, director of global market analysis at Rystad Energy, said in a note.
China’s central bank on Tuesday announced its biggest stimulus measures since the Covid-19 pandemic to pull the economy out of recession and back toward the government’s growth target, but analysts warned that more fiscal support was needed to achieve those goals.
In addition to the continued escalation in the Middle East, American oil companies rushed to evacuate their employees from oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico in light of expectations that the second hurricane in two weeks will invade offshore oil fields.
Several oil companies have suspended some of their production even though Tropical Storm Helen’s path suggests it will miss most of the western and central Gulf of Mexico’s production areas and will reach the Florida Panhandle as a hurricane late Thursday.
